For five months she watched a woman being verbally and physically abused by her partner at a mining camp and one day she could take it no more. Despite the naked fear she saw in the young woman‘s eyes, she encouraged her to leave the camp and was then forced to confront the abuser who was only prevented from attacking her because she drew her licensed firearm. She rescued the woman and transported her out of the interior location hidden under a tarpaulin in the back of a vehicle.

That was ten years ago but it is just one of the many experiences that miner Simona Broomes has had which motivated her to form the recently launched Guyana Women’s Miners Association of which she is president.

“That woman never peeped out …..