Jeanna Pearson

The Foreign Affairs Ministry and UNICEF Guyana yesterday signed the Government of Guyana – UNICEF Annual work plan for the year 2014, which targets the development of children’s rights.

Interviews and photos by Jeanna Pearson and Arian Browne Stabroek News recently visited the Plastic City Squatting Area, West Demerara and residents were eager to speak about life in the swampy mangroves.

A spring tide yesterday hit the Riverview, Ruimveldt community, leaving streets and homes flooded in its wake, while the Agriculture Ministry warned of up to 50mm of rainfall overnight.

Plastic City squatters are rapidly leaving the Best Village foreshore to build their houses after being granted land last year but a few who remain on the muddy garbage-strewn shore say that they cannot afford the price of house lots.

Colwyn Harding received some relief with the donation of colostomy bags even as just over a dozen citizens yesterday afternoon staged a protest opposite the Public Buildings to demand that the police in his alleged rape be brought before the court without delay and face an immediate trial.

By Jeanna Pearson  Photos by Arian Browne   Georgetown was covered in floodwaters yesterday in a now regular pattern that follows heavy rains with residents once again riled up about the pile-up of garbage in drains and canals.

Frustrated by her search     for someone experienced, trustworthy and reliable enough to care for a sick family member, Elwyn Boyle realised that Guyana lacked an organised home nursing care service and decided to do something about it.

The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) has plunged further into financial crisis as sugar production for 2013 fell to 186,807 tonnes, the lowest recorded in 22 years.

Story by Jeanna Pearson with photos by Arian Browne   Approximately eight miles from Georgetown poverty-stricken Indian families are crammed into small dilapidated shacks along a dam near the banks of the Chateau Margot seawall.

A construction worker was shot dead at Belle Vue, West Bank Demerara on Wednesday evening, minutes after a heated argument with his neighbour and his family is alleging that he was killed by a group of neighbourhood police.

Over 80 indigenous persons gathered opposite the Public Buildings yesterday to demonstrate against a move by AFC leader Khemraj Ramjattan to slash $500M in supplementary funds sought for Amerindian communities for the remainder of the year but some of them said that they were promised increased stipends by the Amerindian Ministry for the protest.

Amidst endless cattle pastures and yellow rice fields, sits the small village of Fairfield in Mahaica. 

‘Unfortunately this is where we are today at a protest with a hope that they would hear us.

City businesses are still counting their losses after Wednesday’s flash flood and incessant rain continued to beat down in certain areas in Georgetown, flooding homes and streets yesterday.

There are over 800 children living in children’s homes and orphanages across the country and despite a rise in public interest in foster care, placement has been very challenging.

The United Nations Secretary General’s Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean Professor Edward Greene yesterday lauded the new Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV & AIDS (Pancap) ‘Justice For All’ campaign as a “signal of movement towards getting to zero discrimination.”

Three men were yesterday remanded to prison after being charged with the $93 million gold heist at El Dorado Trading Company, at Port Kaituma last Friday.

Stakeholders yesterday drubbed government’s past efforts to combat the drug trade, saying there has been a misdirected emphasis on penalising users instead of  rehabilitating them and a failure to go after the “big fish” responsible for the supply.

Graduates of the Early Childhood Development Programme were urged to remember their duty as childcare workers in the shaping of children’s personalities.

Defiant tenants continue to occupy the run-down First Federation building on Croal Street and Manget Place, despite a warning issued to vacate the premises.