Relocated Lombard Street families participate in behavioural change workshop

Dec 06, 2020 News

Some of the participants of the workshop.

Kaieteur News – Families, who were relocated from Broad and Lombard Streets, Charlestown, Georgetown to Prospect Phase Two, participated in a workshop geared at encouraging behavioural changes.

The workshop, which was hosted by the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) in collaboration with Child Link Guyana, comes one month after residents of Prospect Housing Scheme on the East Bank Demerara (ECD) accused squatters relocated from Broad Street to the community, of turning their neighbourhood into a ghetto.

During an outreach in October, residents who were allotted lands in the area before the squatters were moved there raised a number of concerns with Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water, Susan Rodrigues, over the behaviour of the former Charlestown occupants.
As such, Deputy Director of Community Development, Donelle Bess-Bascom, in her remarks to the gathering on Friday, said the workshop is evidence of the agency’s commitment to move beyond just establishing housing development.

“We don’t just want to establish settlements, which include the basic infrastructure, our focus is on wholesome communities which speak to families, behaviour changes, and psychosocial skills,” Bess-Bascom noted.

The workshop was spearheaded by Ashome Clarke and covered topics including understanding parenting during the COVID-19 pandemic, anger and conflict management, and adapting to cultural transition.

Some 20 squatting families from Broad and Lombard Streets were relocated earlier this year to Prospect, EBD.

Through collaboration with the Food for the Poor, the families were identified for two-bedroom houses which were constructed and given to them. Among the beneficiaries are five families who were affected when a fire gutted several living quarters.

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