Sport Ministry upgrading four community grounds in Region Five

-quantity of sport gear also handed over

Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Hon. Charles Ramson Jr. has committed to enhancing several recreational grounds in four communities along the Region Five corridor. He also presented a quantity of sport gear to the communities to ensure that the Region’s youth are occupied in productive activities.

During an outreach to Bush Lot, Bath Settlement, D’Edward and Blairmont on Saturday, Minister Ramson assured residents that tangible assistance would be provided to manage community grounds and in other areas as needed.

In an invited comment, he told DPI that provisions have always been made for ground enhancement, through line items in the national budget.

However, he said, “No one, especially the previous administration, ever saw fit that they should visit these grounds, if they are allocating resources to these grounds, to know how they can best make decisions to allocate these resources.”

Minister Ramson said this Administration is doing more now with the resources available, despite the fact that most of the sums in the last budget had been spent.

“In fact, maybe as much as three quarters of the budget was already spent so even though we only had a fraction of the resources, we are doing a lot more because it’s not the amount of money that you have, it’s how you use your money,” he said.

Minister Ramson believes that the people want to build a network of partnerships, which is now being explored in a meaningful way.

“So, I’m very pleased that in attempting to do things this way, we have been able to awaken a spirit of nation building through communities and through community participation that never really existed before or was never really explored before. It already existed, but was never really explored before,” he said.

The Minister pledged that funds would be made available to upgrade grounds with the necessary facilities residents requested.

Meanwhile, several persons expressed appreciation for Minister Ramson’s intervention.

Ms. Seeta Palloo, a student of the University of Guyana, usually hosts classes for children at the Blairmont Community Centre Ground. She has made several requests for the facilities to be enhanced and was pleased that the Minister pledged to address her concerns.

“I’m very excited. I’m very I’m grateful. He promised us a lot of things that I believe will help with the youth development and the development of sports within the community, which I believe is what Blairmont needs, especially at a time like this when you have a lot of social issues rampant. I believe that this will keep the youths engaged and it will be beneficial and fruitful for the members of Blairmont,” she said.

Mr. Heralall Darasan a cricketer of Bush Lot is also optimistic that the conditions at his community’s playfield will get better. “Over the years, we have had a lot of problems with management and also the facility is very poor and I’m very pleased and I welcome the Minister for taking this time off and assist us with making things solidified and I endorse whatever he is doing and we are very much thankful as a community.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Krishna Sewlall of Bath Settlement said his community also welcomes the Minister’s intervention.

“For a long time, we have not had a Minister of Youth and Sport visit this community. This ground was neglected for the past five years so I’m happy that Minister is here and he already made some commitment in terms of ground enhancement,” he said.

Mr. Sewall noted that more than 1,200 youth would benefit from improvements to the ground.