Latest update December 18th, 2024 5:45 AM
Dec 19, 2021 News
Kaieteur News – Driven, among other things, by the simple truth of Mother Teresa that “poverty does not consist of being hungry for bread but rather it is a tremendous hunger for human dignity,” the Guyana Foundation and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, have teamed up to offer training courses to refugee and migrant communities in Port Kaituma, Mabaruma and Bartica.
The Foundation announced its latest collaboration with the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency in a statement to the press.
Some of the beneficiaries of the training courses offered to migrants in Mabaruma by the Guyana Foundation and the UNCHR.
Head of the Guyana Foundation, Supriya Singh-Bodden said that the collaboration has been months in the making. The organisation’s Founder explained that, “We have started cookery and pastry making classes in Mabaruma and Port Kaituma.
In addition to this, she said that sewing and pattern-making classes are currently being taught in Bartica. “We would like to thank the Catholic Church for very generously offering us support and a space for the workshops to be conducted in the North-West. The church has kindly allowed us to use their location in Bartica. This support was vital to making the collaborative effort work.” The courses benefitted over 60 refugee migrants and Guyanese,” Singh- Bodden said.
She noted the participants expressed gratitude for the opportunity to improve their skillsets. “It is our hope that they will be able to open small micro-enterprises in food and sewing to serve the community. Guyana Foundation team members are bilingual in Spanish and English. So, all coursework was conducted in both languages,” Mrs. Singh-Bodden added.
Additionally, she noted that the participants were taught basic bookkeeping principles to manage a small business. The logistics involved in getting equipment and supplies to these remote locations was challenging. However, Singh-Bodden noted that the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency team and the local team members of the Guyana Foundation worked tirelessly to make the programme a reality.
Mrs. Singh-Bodden said, “We must never lose that warm hospitable heart that our old Guyanese grandparents instilled in us. We have people in our midst who are strangers, but when we make the effort to reach out, we will see as they come closer that they are our brothers and sisters. We must embrace them. They need us at this time.”
Guyana is home to an estimated 24,500 refugees and migrants from Venezuela, including some 2,500 Indigenous Warao. Some have settled in hard-to-reach areas near the Venezuelan border and others in or around the towns of Mabaruma and Port Kaituma.
Access to services for these communities is limited and the delivery of aid is impeded by remoteness, lack of transport infrastructure and distances. Assessments conducted in October and November among Warao refugees and migrant households indicate mounting needs, aggravated by the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Most Waraos have only one meal a day or less. Lacking formal job opportunities, many of them mentioned resorting to begging, working odd jobs, often in exchange for food, selling handicrafts or depending on humanitarian assistance. Most families also do not have access to drinking water, relying instead on rivers for drinking, as well as bathing and defecation.
UNHCR has been delivering food hampers, solar lamps, mosquito nets, water purification tablets provided by the Guyanese Civil Defence Commission, and other basic relief items to some 400 Indigenous Waraos from Venezuela who are living in northern Guyana, including in the Anabisi community.
Together with partners, since 2019, “we have been distributing material assistance, providing shelter and support to access education services to refugees, migrants, and members of the host communities in this region and across Guyana to help improve living conditions,” said Singh-Bodden. UNHCR also provides counselling, interpretation services and facilitates their access to government services, including health programmes and vaccination against COVID-19.
Across the region, UNHCR supports national efforts to provide adequate shelter and access to food, medical and educational services for Indigenous populations from Venezuela. UNHCR also works with the Indigenous communities to strengthen their leadership structures, preserve their identity, and protect their traditional knowledge and cultural heritage.
In the framework of the inter-agency response for refugees and migrants from Venezuela, UNHCR works across 17 countries to respond to the plight of five million refugees and migrants from Venezuela hosted in Latin America and the Caribbean, including Indigenous communities.
The Refugee and Migrant Response plan to meet the needs of the Venezuelan refugees and migrants and their host communities in these 17 countries is only 43.6 percent funded to date.
Dec 18, 2024
-KFC Goodwill Int’l Football Series heats up today Kaieteur News- The Petra Organisation’s fifth Annual KFC International Secondary Schools Goodwill Football Series intensified yesterday with two...Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News- In any vibrant democracy, the mechanisms that bind it together are those that mediate differences,... more
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News – The government of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela has steadfast support from many... more
Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.
Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]