Titling of Amerindian lands on track – Sukhai

The Ministry of Amerin-dian Affairs awarded titles to three more Amerindian communities last year and Minister Pauline Sukhai said the target for titling eligible communities will soon be achieved.

Speaking at her ministry’s end-of-year press conference on Monday, the minister revealed that these titles were issued under the three-year Amerindian Land Titling Project. Government had signed a US$10.7 million pact for the titling of Amerindian lands with the UNDP last October during the 7th annual National Toshaos Council meeting.

Sukhai said the ministry was hoping to address the issue of land extension this year. “We have a total of 32 which will be funded under [the] three-year… Amerindian Land Titling (ALT) project and we expect to begin processing the titling of extensions,” she said.

According to the minister, with regard to the demarcation of land, 77 areas have been demarcated while 32 remain to be completed.

Pauline Sukhai
Pauline Sukhai

“It shows as it relates to land that we are able to arrive at the target that we have set ourselves, in fact we have exhausted the budget we received [last] year for demarcation,” she added.

The implementation of the Community Develop-ment Project saw 27 communities receiving grants of $5 million each. She said that this is just the initial phase of a larger project which will be carried out next year. Some 139 communities, she added, are yet to be granted funds under the project.

“This has nothing to do with any delays or any shortfall but the funds are disbursed to communities based on their completion of each stage in their implementation. To date it is on track and we hope by early [this] year to complete [it]…,” she said.

In terms of other economic investments, the minister said the Presidential Grant Fund had some delays early last year owing to the budget cuts, but it was received in November after the National Toshaos Council meeting.

She added that one of the major focuses of the ministry recently was to assist the indigenous communities to transform their village economies, creating sustainable livelihood and generating employment.

Sukhai also informed that several significant projects have been launched this year, including the youth entrepreneurship and apprenticeship programme and the Arawak language revival programme

With regard to education, Sukhai said that 50 students graduated from the Hinterland Scholarship Programme in July.

She said that with 39 hinterland students writing the CSEC examinations and a pass rate of 85%, the ministry intends to place more emphasis on Mathematics and English which continue to pose a problem.

She noted that the Liliendaal dormitory houses 94 students and that it costs roughly $1 million a year to sustain each student.

One other major achievement of the ministry this year, Sukhai said, was the Youth Apprentice-ship Project that was launched in June. She stated that 856 hinterland youths were involved and the ministry has been receiving excellent feedback from the various village councils. Two hundred of these youth, she said, have been trained in the maintaining of solar units.