Visa for STEM Guyana team denied, misses flight

Oct 13, 2022 News

– Foreign Affairs Ministry steps in

Kaieteur News – The day before the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) Guyana team was scheduled to leave for the 2022 FIRST Global Challenge, the team received news that all their visa applications were denied.

Co-founder of STEM Guyana, Karen Abrams

After two years of virtual games, FIRST Global is back this year with an in-person competition. The 2022 FIRST Global Challenge will take place in Geneva, Switzerland, from today to October 16, 2022. For the first time since 2019, high school students, mentors, volunteers, and supporters from more than 180 countries will come together face-to-face in the spirit of global purpose, unity, and collaboration.

Guyana’s team was scheduled to be one of the participating countries in this year’s event. However the team was met with unfortunate news.

The sad news was announced on Tuesday by Karen Abrams, the co-founder of STEM Guyana, via a Facebook post. Abrams titled her post, “MONTHS OF HARD WORK CULMIMATE IN REJECTION FOR TEAM GUYANA.”

On Wednesday, when contacted by the media house, Abrams disclosed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has intervened with the hope of finding a resolution. However, she noted that the team did miss their flight which was scheduled for Wednesday.

While expressing her dissatisfaction with the visa applications being denied, Abrams pointed out, “our teams have toured the US and Mexico and Dubai in previous years and all members have returned home, so I’m not sure what this rejection was about.”

Some members of the STEM Guyana team

Importantly, the 2022 competition would have been the team sixth year of participation and according to Abrams not one of the team member have attempted to abscond.

In another post, she questioned, “Why does a team of brilliant young people who are traveling to an academic Olympiad of 150+ countries need to supply 12 documents including bank statements?”

The co-founder shared a document with the two reasons that was given in relation to the visa application being denied. According to that document, it was pointed out that the decision is based on the purpose and circumstances of the intended stay have not been sufficiently demonstrated and there are reasonable doubts about the reliability and authenticity of the evidence submitted about the crediting of their contents.

The Geneva event will mark the sixth year for FIRST Global, and its first European event. Prior FIRST Global challenges were held in Washington, D.C., Mexico City, and Dubai. With the mission to inspire leadership and innovation among the globe’s nearly 2 billion youth through the sport of robotics, FIRST Global believes it is through science, technology, engineering, and mathematics that the world’s next generation can work together to create a better world for us all.