National Enhancement Exercise is about ‘transformation, oneness’ – Dr Singh

The national clean-up campaign spearheaded by His Excellency, Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali continued on Saturday.

President Ali was joined by ministers, members of the diplomatic community, the joint services, private Sector, non-governmental organisations and volunteers, who fanned out in teams across Georgetown, and in other regions.

Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh, who headed one of the teams said the national clean-up campaign is about ‘transformation and oneness’.

“The national clean-up campaign can firmly be situated within the context of both … transformation and the oneness of Guyana. Transformation from the standpoint of both improving the physical surroundings in which we live, and in which we work, and in which we operate, but also transforming our attitudes particularly as it relates to pride in our physical environment,” Minister Singh said.

The senior minister headed a team of joint services personnel and other volunteers who cleaned -up the main street, Georgetown and surrounding areas.

British High Commissioner, Jane Miller, spoke with the Department of Public Information (DPI) and shared her enthusiasm about helping to keep the environment clean.

“It is such a beautiful country and today we have made it even more beautiful. Just walking on the beach here – it could have been on any Caribbean Island; it is absolutely beautiful and you know we need to be keeping the place beautiful… We are getting lots of international people, and seeing the place look beautiful enhances peoples view of the country, so I really think it’s important for tourism, for the image of the country, it’s good for people, you feel more proud of your country when you are driving around, and it’s beautiful and it’s good for the environment,” she related.

Meanwhile, scores of volunteers who also contributed to the efforts shared their reasons for doing so.

Donna Levi, a volunteer on Main Street shared her passion on keeping the environment clean.

“It is setting an example, to people in our community, to make them conscious that we have to keep our places clean if we want to be healthy. I think that they should teach the children in school, start from small, to teach them to clean-up after themselves. It is important that they know to do that… I call on the community, I call for example these organisations on main street to come out with your staff, to encourage your staff to come out and clean up, this should be done at least once a month and then it will have a domino effect.”

Another volunteer, Garnett Brittlebank, who is also a member of the president’s Men on Mission initiative noted, “It’s a great example, to set, came out in we number to achieve one goal, one mission, collectively to finish this task. It’s important for me to come out and show an example because of the youths, I have to set an example for them, to be the platform, where society can see my contributions, as a service man.”

The event, the third to date, continues to see the involvement of citizens across the country as they lend support to enhance and beautify the country.