Story and photos by Jannelle Williams
Number 2 Village is perhaps one of the most prosperous villages in East Canje Berbice as a large percentage of its residents are involved in private enterprise. Approximately 50% of them are self-employed, creating employment for themselves in a time when there is a dearth of job opportunities in the country. Thus, the village is a hub for economic activities in East Canje. There are numerous shops, groceries and parlours. In addition to this are a diner, lumber yard, two Chinese restaurants, a construction firm, a general store, car dealership, car and bus rental, trucking service, furniture establishment, night club, three internet cafes, supermarket and herbs store to name a few of the economic activities in the village.
When Sunday Stabroek visited the village, proprietrix Sharmattie Anantram was overseeing her Crab business. The 41-year-old woman said that the business has been in her family for generations and went on to reveal that three branches of the family are currently operating crab businesses in the village. “Like fourteen years now we get the crab business but it’s been in the family for years. We buy the crab from the crab men and we clean it and sell the meat to restaurants and even export some,” she said. Anantram admitted that though smelly, the crab business is a profitable one as it provides a livelihood for dozens of persons since they “buy hundreds and hundreds of pounds of crab everyday to clean” and employ on average five to fifteen persons daily to do the cleaning.
Most of the persons employed by Anantram are single parent mothers, out of school youths and
