The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport yesterday received donations of $10M from the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) and Republic Bank (Guyana) Limited.
The GT&T cheque was handed over by CEO Major-General (retired) Joe Singh to Keith Booker, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport.
At the ceremony, the GT&T Director of Marketing and Sales, Wystan Robertson, said that since last November the company had approached the Secretariat indicating its interest in helping to sponsor the event.
Robertson said that apart from the financial contribution, the company had dedicated the front page of the 2008 Directory to promoting the Carifesta event and even designed one of its phone cards to do the same.
He said that the phone card is also memorabilia for those who come to Guyana for the Carifesta celebrations. He also stated that part of the company’s contribution was to ensure that Brickdam and other areas, including Festival City, were beautified.
Also at yesterday’s ceremony, the company awarded its Carifesta X Literary Publication Grant to Ruel Johnson.
The grant was awarded to a promising local writer who was interested in publishing a literary work to be featured at the upcoming Carifesta event. Johnson, who was among several aspirants, received the grant for his collection of short stories titled Fictions.
Meanwhile, at a ceremony at the bank’s head office on New Market Street, Culture Minister Dr Frank Anthony received the cheque from Managing Director of the bank, Edwin Gooding.
Gooding said the bank saw Carifesta X as an “opportunity for the country to showcase its rich heritage, culture and life”.
The festival runs from August 22 to 31
