Imagine, Create, Market
―North Georgetown Students Creating Opportunities
DPI, Guyana, Sunday, February 23, 2020
In a world where many people fancy paying money to look like someone else, it’s always a wiser decision to make investments that make you look like your best self instead. And what’s better and safer than looking like your best self with organic products?
Several students from North Georgetown Secondary School capitalized on the Jubilee Youth Village held earlier in January to showcase their local-made products.
Fifth former Tatiana Munroe and her team produced organic face and hair masks under the brand Majestic Team Organic.
“Our facial mask is made from aloe vera, banana and honey. The honey has anti-ageing properties, the banana helps to reduce oil from the skin and the aloe vera helps to remove dead skin cells,” Tatiana explained.
Outlining the benefits of their hair mask the budding entrepreneur said it contains coconut oil, vitamin e oil, aloe vera and honey and “helps lengthen hair, reduces breakages and removes dead cells.”
Cookie Charm, as explained by classmate Felina Hamilton is the solution to a solution for a snack that tastes great and provides health benefits. The cookie has dark chocolate which provides healthy antioxidants for the body and flavanols which protect the skin from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays.
Jonathon Mars and his group produced a variety of lemon-based items under the brand Jacs Lemon Production.
“We have the lemon detoxifier, lemon furniture polish and then the newest product we produced is the lemon mosquito repellent. […] however, our best product so far is our lemon and rose water face cleanser,” he said.
“Lemon is our raw material and we chose lemon as our raw material because, lemon is a locally grown product in Guyana and when businesses-well according to Miss Monplaisir and my research – when businesses use locally grown products it helps to boost the country’s economy,” Jonathon explained.
He explained how he and classmates took a simple assignment from scratch to having a booth with their products at Youth Village 2020. “It all started as an assignment and then it branched off into an expo at our school and then it brought us here, where the Small Business Bureau (SSBB) sponsored us.”
“I must say all the credit goes to Miss Monplaisir,” Jonathon added.
Head of the Business Department at the school, Dawn Monplaisir said that the idea behind the initiative was to teach the students entrepreneurial skills so they could create employment opportunities for themselves.
“I had the first-ever business expo in the country for secondary schools and I took the initiative to invite the Small Business Bureau […] to let them see what these entrepreneurs, these young creative minds can do,” the business teacher explained.
SBB, Research and Marketing Officer, Shamane Headley said that bureau introduced the In-School Entrepreneurship programme to secondary schools in 2017 to enhance entrepreneurship skills at an early stage.
The bureau presented the young entrepreneurs at the Youth Village with cash grants up to $30,000 for their business ventures.