The Guyana Foundation – helping to transform the lives of the vulnerable

May 30, 2021 News

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“My husband and I contribute a lot to the work along with our overseas-based partners…So; we have 18 paid facilitators, mostly retired teachers and other trained professionals who work with us in these training workshops at the Sunrise Centre and other satellite outlets.”

By Rehanna Ramsay

Kaieteur News – The Guyana Foundation (TGF), a charitable trust established to contribute meaningfully to the lives of vulnerable Guyanese through its Sunrise Centre and satellite stations, has for the past decade, created a safe space for people to improve their mental and socio-economic status.

Mrs. Supriya Singh-Bodden, who founded the non-profit in 2012, explained that since the work commenced, the TGF has been able to contribute meaningfully to communities in nine out of the nation’s 10 administrative regions.
She said that TGF’s first Sunrise Centre located at Zorg-en-Vlygt on the Essequibo Coast has become the model for all the other satellite stations across the country. The TGF visionary explained that the centre at Zorg-en-Vlygt opened its doors specifically to offer the community mental health services to help combat the high incidence of suicide in the region.
Since then, the Sunrise Centre and its satellite stations have been able to offer skills training in a variety of areas to enhance the access to economic opportunities of several communities.

The most recent project, a bakery at Capoey Lake in the Pomeroon/Supenaam, Region Two, has opened up employment opportunities for at least 18 persons, mostly women in that community.
Singh-Bodden said that the Sunrise Bakery in Capoey is just one in the ‘string of community-based projects’ established by TGF over the years. She reflected on when the first Sunrise centre was established. According to Singh-Bodden, back then, TGF worked with several professionals to train and equip counsellors to offer holistic wellness therapy to individuals battling mental health issues (mainly suicide) to help them adopt positive lifestyle-related behaviours and practices.
According to her, the mental health project received significant support from the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) and Dr. Latchman Narain, a Guyanese-Canadian mental health professional as well as mental health professionals in Cuba.

Since then, Singh-Bodden said that TGF has been able to offer notable help to the region in their fight against suicide.
In addition, TGF has worked in collaboration with churches, hospitals and various community groups across the regions to develop the skill-set of persons in the area of hairdressing, photography, IT training, floral and craft, wedding planning, music lessons, leather craft, massage techniques, soap-making, catering techniques and practices, makeup artistry and more.
With assistance from their highly trained staff and workers, the TGF continues to offer these services to youths, single parent households and other types of vulnerable individuals.
According to Singh-Bodden, TGF, which receives significant financial support from a number of overseas-based entities, individuals as well as the Canadian Government, has a fully trained staff of professionals who work ‘around the clock’ to ensure that the projects are successful.

“My husband and I contribute a lot to the work along with our overseas-based partners…So; we have 18 paid facilitators, mostly retired teachers and other trained professionals who work with us in these training workshops at the Sunrise Centre and other satellite outlets,” she said.
Alluding to some projects being executed countrywide to date, she said Sunrise Centre is a platform for which TGF will conduct several large and small-scale projects across the country in an effort to restore hope and purpose; rebuild lives; bring relief wherever it is needed, and create a better future for all Guyanese.

SUNRISE CENTRES
To this end, Singh-Bodden emphasised that the intention is always to strengthen communities.
In fact, Singh-Bodden said that TGF is driven by the conviction that great change can be made by people who are encouraged and supported.
In this regard, she said the TGF networks and lobbies support from local and international partners to reach its project goals. This, in turn, she said, empowers residents to conduct self-help projects to improve their quality of life.
Citing hurdles and developments realised, redounding to the benefit of the people of the various communities in which they operate, Singh-Bodden noted that as an organisation, TGF has certainly moved from strength to strength.
She said the ultimate plan is for it to establish community-based centres in various regions.
“We have our main centre in Essequibo and we want to establish one in Linden [Region 10],” she said.
As such, the Founder is open to working with organisations that have a genuine interest in helping TGF reach its humanitarian goals.

VILLAGE RENEWAL PROJECTS
In addition, to the work at the Sunrise Centres, the Foundation continues to provide assistance through its village renewal project.
From time-to-time, she said TGF symbolically adopts villages for community development project. In the past, TGF has worked with Pigeon Island (squatting area) to bring potable water to the people there.

The Foundation has also worked with Breezy Point on the East Coast of Demerara to install solar light kits at every home to bring light to a community with no electricity and Moruca in Region One to provide toilet facilities for 500 children as well as clean drinking water, dormitory and other supplies.
Back in 2016, the Foundation conducted one of its first village renewal projects at Hague Back, on the West Coast of Demerara.
Some of the work included donating sports equipment for the youth in the village, install solar streetlights on the public access road to the community, upgrade some of the access roads to farms in the area, install signage at some of the key points in the village, and teach women to make table linen for resale locally and internationally.
Additionally, TGF has concentrated its efforts to help Indigenous communities, particularly the Wai-Wai tribe in the South Rupununi, whose craft items were purchased through the Foundation for sale to Cruise line passengers in the Grand Cayman Islands.
Most recently with the unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic, TGF has reached out to provide support to the people of Santa Rosa in Region One. The villagers were given food supplies and hand-sewn masks compliments of the Guyana Foundation.
Earlier this month, TGF commissioned its first bakery at the Capoey Lake in the Pomeroon/Supenaam Region of the Essequibo.
The opening ceremony of the Capoey Sunrise Bakery, which was held at Capoey village, saw in attendance First Lady, Arya Ali, and Prime Minister, Brigadier Mark Phillips, members of the Regional Administration, members of the Toshao Council, Canadian High Commissioner, Mark Berman, and other invited guests from around Guyana.
The project, which will assist several villagers, mostly women, is said to have cost approximately $15 million and was done in collaboration with the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives.
In addition, to those funds, TGF received from the Estate of Mr. Glynn Ludlow Hunte, a Guyanese who resided in the United Kingdom, significant support to make the project possible.
Kaieteur News understands that 18 persons – 17 female and one male – attended a skills training course to become bakers at the foundation’s Sunrise Centre at Zorg-en-Vlygt on the Essequibo Coast.
Commenting on the prospects of the bakery, Singh-Bodden said that the project fits into the type of work the Foundation has been doing over the years to try to renew villages around Guyana, empowering women; empowering people in general by offering them skills to uplift themselves.
As the bakery becomes more established, it is hoped that they will be able to supply surrounding villages as well as the entire Essequibo coastland. It is hoped too, that this bakery will also be able to supply the daily need to provide nutritious meals for the schoolchildren in the village.
In this regard, Singh-Bodden said that the Foundation looks forward to partnering with more agencies and individuals around the world to assist them in their mission to uplift the people of Guyana who are its only real asset.

 

 

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