Category: Features

Guyana National Junior Squash team: A group of athletic winners On Sunday we celebrated International Youth Day, and one local group of youngsters to take note of is the Guyana National Junior Squash team. International Youth Day was created by the United Nations and first celebrated in 1998. The event is now marked on August 12 each year, and aims to celebrate the contribution youths make to society. This year we celebrated this day under the theme, ‘Building a Better World: Partnering with Youth’. The Guyana National Junior Squash team…

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By Avenash Ramzan The Roman philosopher, politician and orator, Marcus Tulius Cicero, once said, “Not to know what has been transacted in former times is to be always a child. If no use is made of the labours of past ages, the world must remain always in the infancy of knowledge.” With this in mind, and embracing the fact that knowledge is power, a group of Enmore residents is working assiduously to ensure the younger generations of the East Coast Demerara village do not remain in a state of infancy…

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By Indrawattie Natram Women across the world have been the strength behind their families, and many are poor single parents who struggle daily to provide a decent way of life for their children while guiding them to their own future successes. Forty-year-old Devika Persaud of Mainstay Village on the Essequibo Coast is one such single mother of four girls, including triplets who were born Nov. 2, 1994. In an interview with Guyana Times Sunday Magazine, Persaud said she remembers that day vividly, as it was raining that morning when, around…

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This year’s Emancipation Day theme, “Reclaiming our Rights through Unified Purpose”, should make us all pause to reflect how far we have come in gaining freedom from slavery. According to the African Cultural and Development Association (ACDA) this theme was chosen to complement the theme, “People of African Descent: Recognition, Justice, Development”, which was used for the United Nations ‘International Year for People of African Descent’. This year’s Emancipation 2012 theme should help us to reflect on the fact that Guyana is a country forged out of a mixture of…

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Affording a new life for Guyanese children he Three Rivers Kids Foundation was founded in 2005 to help give a new phase of life to children stricken with heart problems and other medical issues. It is a registered charitable organization in Ontario, Canada. The goal of this organisation is to help sick children in Guyana whose parents are too poor to afford medical care. The organisation covers the medical treatment for children who need to be brought overseas. In an interview with Guyana Times Sunday Magazine, president of the foundation…

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By Venessa Deosaran Akima McPherson is a multimedia artist who uses her art for activism Akima McPherson first trained as a painter at the E.R Burrowes School of Art then at the University of Guyana.  Since her first professional exhibition with the Guyana Women Artists’ Association in November 2001, she has participated in numerous group exhibitions, mostly in Guyana, and usually with paintings.  In 2006, her painting ‘Chakra Meditation’ was featured in the Clico Art Calendar Caribbean Women Art.  In 2006 and 2008, her work was selected to be part…

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A pivotal agency for human development By Venessa Deosaran The Carnegie School of Home Economics, formerly the Carnegie Trade School, had its genesis in 1933, when several institutions were set up to educate young women of the society. This now almost 80-year-old institution was the result of an initiative of a committee spearheaded by Major W. Bain Gray, PhD, then director of education, who believed that there should be a programme of study that included domestic courses such as needlework, cookery, laundry and housekeeping for young girls. This recommendation saw…

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The women’s section of the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha, the Mahila Mandalee, is a group of socially  conscious Hindu women that works towards addressing a range of issues faced by women and children Mahila Mandalee (meaning women group or collection of women) was established January 8, 1974. It works in collaboration with the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha in the execution of its programmes and activities. Among the Mandalee’s main programmes are the children’s literacy programmes, skills training for women, promotion of Indian cookery, Diwali children’s party, and programmes to improve…

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By Venessa Deosaran For more than eight years, the Support Group for Deaf Persons has continuously provided a platform for deaf persons to be heard. Director of the group, Leon Walcott said it developed as a result of a partnership effort between the Guyana Community Based Rehabilitation Programme (GCBRP) and the International Deaf Children Society of the United Kingdom. Walcott is also the editor of ‘Hopeful Steps’ the official newsletter of the GCBRP. The group is an important part of the GCBRP and was established on June 4, 2005, where…

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By Venessa Deosaran The ‘Venture Out for Women Programme’ officially started in 2008 as an initiative of EMPRETEC Guyana with a strategic focus for the development of entrepreneurship among women. The programme is intended to target mostly women who are small and medium scale business owners. It was the brainchild of Managing Director, Judy Semple-Joseph. In 2010, the programme saw collaboration between EMPRETEC Guyana and Republic Bank Limited with the first group of women entrepreneurs in Regions Two, Four, Nine and Ten respectively. To date, approximately 300 participants from those…

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