A new programme themed ‘Be Good To People’ was yesterday launched by the Ministry of Social Protection with the main aim of empowering and improving the lives of women and girls across Guyana.
The programme will be managed by the recently established Special Project Execution Unit (SPEU) under the ministry and it is being spearheaded by Rozanna Beaumont of the US and Suzanna Nichols and Marc Proctor both of Canada.
The mission of the programme, which was launched at the Regency Hotel yesterday and saw the attendance of representatives from a number of organisations, is to foster and develop, support and champion a vibrant, dynamic empowerment programme to communities throughout Guyana. This is expected to be done through collaborative progarmmes, training and services through funding opportunities.
According to Dhanmattie Sohal, director of the new unit, the overall theme of the programme is improving the lives of women and girls and to that end there is a range of issues that must be addressed and “at the same time a range or organisations would have to do different things in order to improve the life of women and girls.”
According to Sohal yesterday’s event was a follow-up to an interactive session that was held by the ministry about two weeks ago and it was at that meeting that Minister of Social Protection Volda Lawrence had indicated that Beaumont and Nichols would have been in the country.
She explained that local non-government and charitable organisations would be funded to undertake projects with funding coming from corporate Canada and America through companies such as J A Maxwell Global Corporation, Procter & Gamble Co and Grace among others.
The modalities for NGOs accessing the funding has not yet been worked out and Sohal said that with time she hoped all of the organisations represented at yesterday’s event and others would benefit.
“The hope is that it will be long term,” the unit head said though she could not say definitively.
She said many of the organisations from out of town were not in attendance as they were not promised reimbursement of transportation.
Sohal’s unit is new and it is hoped that funding that does come through central government will be coordinated and managed through the unit. ‘Be Good To People’ is the SPEU’s first project and Sohal said she could not say how long the process would take before organisations can commence accessing funding.
“This is like a fact-finding mission for the two resource persons…so based on what they hear today they are going to have some idea of the magnitude of what needs to be done and then we would have to put together a document to give a sense as to the kind of issues, maybe the magnitude of the problem so that the potential funder would have a sense of what they need to provide in order to make the difference,” Sohal said.
Minister Lawrence in her remarks said the yesterday’s event was significant for women and girls in Guyana since the project aims at empowering their lives since her ministry has prioritised this in its mission. The ministry has a mission to “restore, renew and rebuild” and this the minister said underscores its goal of providing women and girls with experience of achievement and enrichment to secure a better future for themselves.
According to the minister the head of the new programme has envisioned that in the long term it would inspire and change the lives of girls and women.
