Following a recent ‘fact-finding’ mission on 24-25 October 2015, to Baramita in Region One, the government plans to design an action plan to transform the community.
According to a Govern-ment Information Agency (GINA) press release, the high-level team was led by Minister of Indigenous People’s Affairs, Sydney Allicock and also included Minister within the Ministry of Communities Dawn-Hasting Williams, Simona Broomes Minister within the Ministry of Social Protection, Richard Allen the Regional Member of Parliament along with representatives from the Amerindian Associations and the National Toshaos Council.
Baramita covers approximately 3000 square miles. Small and large scale mining is the main economic activity.
During the visit the residents called on the government to intervene and assist them in tackling various issues that have been stymieing the development of their community over the past two years. Attention was drawn to misuse of village funds and other resources, the abandonment of donated vehicles (an ATV, tractor and two pickup trucks) by the previous council; poor record keeping of dredge operations with over $25M in royalties from miners unaccounted for since no receipts have been receiv-ed to indicate whether said payments were made. For this year over $5M has been received.
Allicock assured the villagers that his ministry will conduct an audit into the alleged unaccounted for $25M and hold Village Council training workshops to ensure transparency and accountability. He also stated that Baramita will soon benefit from the current Land Titling and Demarcation Project being executed by the ministry. With regards to the road from Baramita to Matthews Ridge and the Papaya Bridge the minister intends to engage the Minister of Public Infra-structure on these issues.
Residents appealed for more medical outreaches to tackle the increase of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases among the youth, intervention in Visual Inspection of Cervix with acetic acid (VIA) screenings and assistance to combat non-communicable diseases. Also mentioned was the prevalence of substance abuse among children, with the drugs of choice varying from alcohol to marijuana, cocaine and other illicit drugs.
Broomes in addressing the issue of high suicide rates vowed to get to the root of the problem. She instructed the Baramita Village Council to immediately select persons to be trained as welfare officers by her ministry and in the interim a Social Welfare Office will be stationed in the community. It was stated in the GINA release that the number of suicides in the village between 2006 and 2015 was 69, with 10 last year. The GINA release added that there was one case where a young boy committed suicide after he was sodomised.
Sexual abuse among young girls was also raised by residents. They said that the most recent victim was an eight-year-old girl who was dragged into the bushes, raped and left there. The residents say no proper investigation was done.
Broomes condemned the illegal unlicensed rum shops located along the backdam, stating that they were traps to lure young people especially girls and promised to personally support their removal. To this end, the village toshao disclosed that letters of notice are being drafted to be served on the shop owners for the removal of their structures by 1 November 2015, punitive actions will be taken against anyone failing to comply.
The release stated that residents have requested that the government establish programmes to better prepare students for CXC and reduce the high dropout rate. The Baramita Primary School which is currently run by a headmaster, a senior mistress and four untrained teachers has seen a decline in its student population due to absenteeism and dropouts. The reluctance of parents to send their children to the secondary school in Port Kaituma and the language barrier have also contributed to this problem.
Following calls for the formation of a Community Policing Group the Office in Charge invited interested persons to make themselves available for training.
$4M was also received for the construction of a hot meal kitchen and purchase of sports gear and school supplies. Minister Hastings-Williams said there needed to be more partnership and equal respect of rights between residents and the miners; while Allicock encouraged them to investigate farming and livestock rearing to offset mining. Dr George Norton, Minister of Health and Annette Ferguson, Minister within the Ministry of Public Infrastructure are scheduled to visit Baramita to address the issues under their purview.
