Ring, Ring! … From today your telephone’s chime may be promoting a different ring to your usual conversation. For starters, the buzz will be a message of support and compassion to some of Guyana’s abject citizens.
This will come when a novel communication scheme is launched today in Linden by the Guyana Beach Football Association (GBFA) aka ‘Red Jaguars’ and the Linden Care Foundation (LCF) to assist ‘at-risk’ residents of the community. It is a six-month pilot project called the ‘Red Jaguars Mobile Network’, and aids an initial batch of 15 persons afflicted with the HIV virus.
“The main purpose of the project is to help the less fortunate and HIV patients connect to the world through various social applications like facebook, skype, email, etcetera,” GBFA president M. Garth Nelson offered. It’s another of the body’s recent major undertakings, and follows the US visit by three GBFA members in early June.
At the 11am launch members of the two bodies will make a ‘first’ call inclusive of salutations and commendations, before connecting with the other users of the scheme. The simple ceremony will also have advisories delivered on the technical and other features of the phones and plans. “We are involved to make a better difference in the community, and this project is most welcomed by all, especially the users” said LCF’s Roshauna Rawlins. She is integral to today’s exercise, and will oversee the LCF ongoing inputs in the project.
According to Nelson, the persons have been gifted with the android phones which they use to acquire their own cell service. Of the 15 users, five have plans with GT&T and the others are with Digicel.
The GBFA got the G$72,000 phones from overseas through sponsorship from Yes We Can Auto Repairs and Williams Shipping of New York. Nelson said they are working on “a backlog of over 20 additional users” waiting to join the network, and noted there are “a number of civil servants, nurses and teachers, who want to be included.”
The project extends the GBFA’s outreach campaign with LCF to champion the expulsion of HIV/AIDS in the town. “The GBFA wants the public at large to recognize our work to improve the quality of life of these persons.” Currently, users are recommended by the LCF which also manages a special series of ‘What’s Your Grade’ HIV screening exercise that were initiated by the GBFA.
The idea to establish the scheme stems from observing the difficultly these residents face to have their own phones and subscribe to a comfy plan. “It’s even harder for them to borrow someone else’s to make urgent calls,” the GBFA top brass noted, adding that the stigma associated with the affliction plays a big part in the dilemma.
Though the project is initially in the Linden, Nelson assured that “the ultimate aim is to have it extend countrywide in a year’s time”, once the monthly evaluations show favourable usage. “Additionally we plan to approach one of the service providers next year for help after we learn how to proper manage the network.”
There are no limitations of the type of plan users desire. However, Nelson stated that the GBFA will pitch-in to cover charges on the users’ phone service which will likely be G$30,000 bi-weekly. “As promised to the users we can only afford ‘top-up’ credit from 10% of all our proceeds and sponsorship.”
That pledge liberally underscores the ‘walk the talk’ efforts of the Red Jaguars – moves worthy of being the talk of the town. Join the conversation.
