By Joseph Allen
As Guyana continues to develop as an oil and gas economy, the perception of everyone being taken care of remains a myth.
This is according to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Food for The Poor (FFTP) Guyana Inc, Kent Vincent, who noted that Guyana still remains a nation with many in need of assistance.
“With the advent of oil it is much more difficult to market Guyana as a poor country although we know that the poor are still here. You tell people about Guyana… Guyana got oil but we still working with the poor, we have to”, he said.
Vincent declared that the organisation is there to lend a hand to those in need. This was noted during the distribution drive held at the organisation’s head office in Festival City, North Ruimveldt, Georgetown yesterday. At the distribution drive, hundreds of people in need lined up at the Festival City Head Office to receive much-needed food and items from early in the morning. The exercise was part of FFTP’s regular distribution drive, where persons in need are given food supplies, supplements, clothing and other items that are essential.
The items are donated mostly from the US and other parts of the world. As many as 180 containers come to Guyana each year filled with items for distribution.
Food for the Poor (Guyana) Incorporated, is the largest charitable non-governmental organization (NGO) in Guyana. It commenced operations on June 3, 1991 in Kingston, Georgetown and is presently located at Blue Mountain Road, Festival City, North Ruimveldt, Georgetown. It describes its goal as helping to alleviate poverty and improving lives by providing relief, rehabilitation and sustainable development to all Guyanese.
The CEO iterated that while Guyana has discovered oil, FFTP is still seeing the need to give in areas such as the interior. As such, it is set to shift its focus more on the interior regions, as the need for basic essential items there remains high.
“We are here, this is the work we do, to help those who are in need where ever they are. We are doing work in the interior locations at the moment because there is a lot of poor concentrated there. So, we are certainly refocusing our efforts to get into those outlying regions. It is sometimes difficult to get there but we are making efforts to get into those regions. Not only to just distribute stuff but to do various projects; in the schools, and in the communities to help lift people out of poverty”, he told the Sunday Stabroek.
He added that this is so because while there remains pockets of individuals in the city with needs, the far-flung communities are also looking for help.
“There is a constant, maybe in the city areas it’s a little better, but in some places there are some pockets of poor that I would know, and people in the area would know where the poor are located, but we are now making a push deeper into like Region One. We are doing some work in Region Eight, we continue to send items to Region Nine, we have been into the Region Seven recently, to see how we can work there. We met with the regional officials in Region Ten. So, we are sort of broadening”, he stated.
This need, Vincent said, was more pressing during the COVID-19 period and still continues now.
“We saw the increase during COVID-19. COVID-19 time, people lost jobs, and we got more requests; individual requests from people and families for assistance and we try to assist as best we could. We didn’t stop during the COVID time and have continued up to now”, he added.
