HEYS participants plant trees for Agriculture month

GINA, GUYANA, Saturday, October 8, 2016

Participants of the Hinterland Employment and Youth Service programme (HEYS), in Bumberry  Hill, Region One, joined the rest of Guyana in planting trees for Agriculture Month. October has been designated Agriculture Month.

Minister within the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs, Valerie Garrido Lowe, visited the community last weekend and reminded the youths of the importance of greening their environment.

Noting that agriculture is a major subject of the HEYS programme, the minister urged the youths to be more aggressive in the field.  She encouraged them to approach their facilitators or even the Toshao to get fruit trees and support to start kitchen gardens.

“If each one of you try to make your space better, then the whole community will be better,” Lowe told the HEYS participants, adding that they can become entrepreneurs in the agro-processing field. “Everything that is wasting, you can find ways how to preserve them and sell them, package them, dry them, and boil them,” Minister Lowe explained.

The HEYS programme is the brainchild of Minister Lowe. She said that the programme was developed as a means of giving youths in hinterland areas a second chance, by empowering and equipping them with the necessary skills so that they can contribute to the development of their community.

Under the HEYS programme, youths are being trained and certified in areas of garment construction, carpentry, joinery, tourism, auto mechanic, agriculture and entrepreneurship. They are also taught mathematics and english language.

The Hinterland Employment and Youth Service (HEYS) programme began in October 2015 and is currently ongoing in 112 hinterland communities.

 

By: Isaiah Braithwaite