Government’s drive to bridge Coastal-Hinterland Gap strengthens

– as UNICEF’s first study on Indigenous Women and children completed

DPI, GUYANA, Thursday, May 31, 2018

The United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has handed over its findings from a study of socioeconomic issues affecting women and children from Guyana’s indigenous population.

The research focused on residents from 12 indigenous villages and four administrative towns. More than 1,000 stakeholders participated in the study, which entailed over 70 hours of recordings.

UNICEF’s Guyana and Suriname representative Sylvie Fouet said that this is the first such study has conducted in Latin America.  Guyana was chosen because it has the largest indigenous population in the Commonwealth Caribbean.

Expressing UNICEF’s commitment to aiding in this country’s development, Fouet added the study provides the necessary information on the issues affecting the Indigenous population and possible approaches to remedy them.

The research focused on education, health and citizenship.  Fouet explained that because of distance, many Indigenous citizens experience challenges obtaining birth certificates, while children often do not have access to secondary education.

Speaking this afternoon in his Ministry’s boardroom, Minister of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs Sydney Allicock said that the study will enable this administration to craft a plan to further develop indigenous communities. This will help these communities to make a more meaningful contribution to the nation’s economy.

He reassured that the results of the study will be implemented. “We are here on the Guiana Shield where six countries are benefitting. We have the Amazon basin, which is all part of the protection of 20 percent of the Earth’s fresh water reservoir. Without water we are nothing.”

Minister within the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs Valerie Garrido-Lowe expressed gratitude to UNICEF and all Indigenous persons that played a role in making the study a reality. She pointed out that women in Indigenous communities are most times left to run the homes, while the men go out to work, “so women are very strong and they manage the homes well”. Minister Garrido-Lowe said it is for this reason that she believes the study will give the government a better understating of key areas that need attention.

Study being put into action

The Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs has already made recommendations for the necessary fellow ministries and establishments to have the points in the study addressed.

Minister Garrido-Lowe said that the following recommendations will be sent to the relevant ministries.

Ministry of Public Health: have an adequate supply of medications and different types of education of contraceptives for all communities.

Ministry of Education: Make available a list of all school age children living with a disability to the school welfare officers, and one trained teacher to work with children with special needs.

Ministry of Social Protection: Prepare a list of steps for reporting to police all sexual abuse and other forms sexual exploitation, number cases in adolescent teen pregnancy (UNICEF has been working on an agenda for this project).

Ministry of Communities: will be requested to work with the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) to ensure that 25 percent of the members of each RDC and Neighborhood Democratic Council (NDC) in Indigenous communities are women and make available the dissemination of the risk informed child friendly regional profiles.

Ministry of the Presidency Department of Citizenship: ensure all births in the Hinterland are registered with special emphasis on home delivery, zero adult trafficking and tougher penalties for perpetrators in these said communities.

University of Guyana: Requested to support the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs in monitoring the improvements in Indigenous communities and to make available the documentation of the conduct of the study and post study monitoring actions.

Ministry of the Presidency Department of Climate change- mobilise resources for projects to address climate change issues in hinterland communities.

The Ministry of Indigenous People’s Affairs will launch the report in the villages where the study was carried out and will create a Lexicon of indigenous terms by region, monitor the action plan, establish an orientation Centre for all professionals, and foster stronger relations between Toshaos and Regional executives.

 

By: Zanneel Williams

Images by Anil Seelall and Tejpaul Bridgemohan.