Fifteen vulnerable women drawn from two local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were given the opportunity to empower themselves by being granted fully funded scholarships compliments of the Office of the First Lady.
In a release on Saturday, the Office of the First Lady stated that at a simple ceremony held at State House on Friday, First Lady Arya Ali granted eight scholarships to women from ChildLink and seven scholarships to women from Help and Shelter. The scholarships will afford these women the opportunity to pursue studies and training at the Carnegie School of Home Economics (CSHE) for one, and in some cases, two years.
According to the release, the idea of providing training opportunities to vulnerable women came out of a meeting between the First Lady and the Principal and Vice Principal of CSHE in November of last year.
The scholarship awardees are women who are considered to be highly vulnerable because of the conditions under which they lived or still live, and the fact that none of them were able to complete formal schooling.
While the Office of the First Lady will fund the tuition in full, the Ministry of Public Service has agreed to provide a monthly allowance to cover transportation cost, meals, and uniform.
A Memorandum of Understanding was inked between these two entities to ensure that this commitment is fulfilled, and that over the next four years, the Ministry provides similar opportunities for women in need.
“Guyana will begin to develop rapidly and if opportunities are not provided equitably, it can result in a widening of the gender gap,” Mrs Ali told the small group of representatives from the NGOs and CSHE.
She also urged Guyanese to be aware of the fact that women are already disproportionately affected and that efforts must be redoubled to ensure that they are provided with the tools and resources necessary to improve their marketability and better integrate them into the labour force.
“I am very happy to be able to provide these women with a window of opportunity to empower themselves and positively impact those around them,” the First Lady added.
Minister of Public Service, Sonia Parag, who was present at the ceremony expressed her willingness to support initiatives of this nature. “I jumped on this opportunity to facilitate this activity specifically for the fact that these women will be empowered to the point of becoming independent. This is what we want to see in society; women being given opportunities and being treated equally.”
In addition to providing the monthly allowance for this year’s recipients, the minister pledged to ensure that each year, provisions are made for this category of women to benefit from similar opportunities through the Public Service Ministry. She also committed to keep the initiative going, the release added.
