A call was made on Wednesday for the provision of facilities and equipment, in particular computers, at Mahdia, since that community did not benefit from the One Laptop Per Family project.
The need for a recreational centre was also mentioned when the Guyana Women Miners Organisation (GWMO) facilitated a meeting in the mining community.
Residents raised concerns about the lifestyle of girls in the community and were urged to be the motivating factor that would bring about change in the young women who lead inappropriate lifestyles. GWMO President Simona Broomes urged especially the women to go the extra mile to help young women, stating that Mahdia is a place where if persons do not motivate themselves there is no motivation there for them.
The resident who plugged for the recreational centre, said it would be a place where talks could be held with children and parents since the problem was about children and young people being wayward, mostly because there was very little for them to do in the community.
Responding to the plea for computers, another resident then revealed that there were computers at the secondary school languishing for want of a technician to set them up.
Present at the meeting were the school’s welfare officer and the probation officer who were both unfamiliar to the others. Residents said they never knew the community had such officers. Nevertheless they were both allowed to make inputs on the situation affecting the education and welfare of girls of school age.
A discussion period began during which Broomes urged her audience to be watchful for the sake of the young girls in Mahdia. She stressed the need to raise the mantle against human trafficking.
She asked that women stop looking at whether they believe the girls chose to be there or not and focus on the fact that they should not be there. A call was made for women to speak up and take a stand to do something about the situation.
Mining
Broomes told the meeting of some ten women, along with local officials, that Mahdia, being a new mining district, hosts small scale women miners who have taken “too much blows”. She said the women need to lobby for a different arrangement and a good start might be to identify the locations in which they are working bring them to the table so that assistance can be garnered from the government. She said that women who want to venture out into new areas but are unsure need to initiate the process by making it known to the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC). She said if it wasn’t done, they could remain in whatever predicament they might be facing.
Also, women were asked to express their definite interest in Global Positioning System (GPS) training which she is lobbying to have done at Mahdia to reduce the cost of the training. She told the women that it was now not only the popular way of making mining easier, but also essential for safeguarding their lots.
The GWMO has applied for a block and is currently fleshing it out with the Ministry of Natural Resources. Broomes told the women not to be clustered and focus only on mining in and around Mahdia. She said Mahdia had become “beaten” so they should look beyond to be able to benefit from the opportunities.
Broomes with the aid of a committee member Ann Charles chaired the meeting which was held at the business establishment of one of its members in the Mahdia district.
The GWMO is said to have over 326 members and counting.
