US Embassy hosts dinner and discussion on workplace discrimination

On Wednesday, US Ambassador Perry Holloway hosted a ‘Dinner and Discussion on Discrimination in the Workplace’ at his residence.

The milestone event was organized at the request of the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) as part of the Guyana Workplace Equality Project, which is a partnership between SASOD and the US Embassy and funded by the US State Department’s Global Equality Fund.

In photo is Ambassador Perry Holloway (centre) with private sector leaders, US Embassy officials and SASOD representatives.
In photo is Ambassador Perry Holloway (centre) with private sector leaders, US Embassy officials and SASOD representatives.

According to a SASOD press release, the gathering discussed practical ways that the private sector can partner with SASOD to tackle discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and health status in the workplace, particularly in policy development and implementation, workplace education programmes and legal reform.

Present were Vishnu Doerga, President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI); Suzanne French, Executive Director of the Guyana Business Coalition on Health Awareness (GBCHA); Donna Roberts-Benjamin, GBCHA’s President; Ramesh Persaud, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Institute of Private Enterprise Development; Patricia Bacchus, CEO of Caribbean Container Inc and Chairperson of the Board of the Guyana Office for Investment; Gerald Gouveia, Director of the Roraima Group of Companies; SASOD’s Advocacy and Communications Officer Schemel Patrick and Managing Director Joel Simpson and US Embassy officials Sandra Zuniga Guzman, Deputy Counselor, Political, Economic and Commercial Section; James Bjorkman, Counselor of the Political, Economic and Commercial Section and Terry Steers-Gonzalez, Deputy Chief of Mission.