This week residents of Rupununi were asked about the issues affecting them the most. Their comments follow:
Interviews by Mariah Lall with photos by Keno George
Alfreda Charles – ‘I think we are running short of drugs in the Moco Moco health centre. We barely get drugs inside there. Sometimes when the children get sick and they don’t have the cough syrup, you have to go to Lethem and you still can’t get it. It’s hard sometimes because you can find a child sick here and you go the health worker now but you can’t get because they don’t have. Persons who suffer with sugar problems they have to go all the way to Lethem, by the time you meet the hospital you might drop dead. The lack of transportation for school children is another issue we have too. We have over 30 secondary school students in the village who attend the St Ignatius Secondary School but we only have one bus. Most times they have to sit on top one another. Sometimes the bus breaks down and they have to ride or if not they walk the 14 miles to get to school. It’s hard you know.’
William Ramsarran – ‘One of my concerns is that we need more assistance with agriculture in the village. With all that is happening now with the drought and then even in the rainy season our crops are being destroyed. So we need some more attention to be given to agriculture in the village.’
David Robeiro – ‘One of the most important things: the community health worker in Shulinab has retired but we have other health workers in satellite villages who usually come out to assist. But in cases of emergencies we don’t have a health worker around so there is a delay in getting patients out to the Lethem Public Hospital. Job opportunities in the region is another issue as a lot of teenagers are just at home and wanting to be employed but don’t have the opportunities here. The usual thing now is for them to go across to Bom Fin and look for work. If we could have an institute established here in Lethem that can offer some sort of skill training for these youth it would be perfect.’
Roderick George – ‘First of all I happen to be a school teacher and a retired headmaster who has a very great concern for the education of our loving children. The shortage of basic text books is one of my main concerns in all three categories of the education system – nursery, primary and secondary. I was one of the persons in charge of the Hinterland Teachers’ Programme, they too are short of basic text books, where education is concerned that is my main concern.
Gabriella Rodrigues – ‘First of all Lethem does not have any institutes or any training places for youth so just as they come out of school they tend to stray because they don’t have anything else to do. They do graduate with good grades but job opportunities is not that much available other than working in stores which may not be suitable for the qualifications they have. They can do so much more but there is no training institution here where they can go to further their studies. A lot of people here cannot afford to send their children all the way to Georgetown to study and support them all the way there and a lot of families don’t have only one child so it’s a bit complicated. Secondly, a lot of stores here in Lethem pay their workers using Reals (Brazilian currency) which I don’t think it should be so. We are all Guyanese and here everything we purchase must be in Guyana dollars so paying us with Reals puts us at a disadvantage because we have to go and change the money and the rate is low. And I bet the rate at which the workers are being paid is lower than the actual rate so the worker ends up losing.’
Isabella Francis – ‘Jobs are not available in Aishalton Village where I am from. Most persons have to travel out to other areas to find jobs. There is also no transportation for children who attend school out of the village, the village jeep is there but it is not used for that purpose. Travelling from Aishalton to St Ignatius where the children go to school is $5,000 one way so most children end up staying at the school’s dorm.
Ozzie Joseph – ‘Our people are suffering with health issues, Aishalton has a hospital but has no one to operate it. Right now we have so many young doctors coming from Cuba who are inexperienced to handle the job. I think they are too young and they are not taking their responsibilities as doctors seriously. My family has personally experienced a misdiagnosis by one such doctor that cost my relative his job. We are happy to have these Cuban trained doctors but then they are inexperienced. I thinking studying and getting your certificate is nothing with having the experience. The know-how and the do-how is two different things; we need some old heads to overlook them man.’
Jonathan Joseph – ‘As a resident of St Ignatius Village I would like to see more being done to promote tourism in the Rupununi. I had met this guy who told me that he was surprised to know that the Rodeo got no promotion on television in Georgetown. Presently I am in charge of tourism in village and I would like see more job opportunities being created for our youth through tourism. We need better promotion and support for our tourism sector. A lot of businessmen come and tell me I should do this and I should do that but we can only do so much on our own. Most of the funding for tourism-based projects goes to Surama, what about central? Soon there is going to be an international airport at Bom Fin what is going to happen? In this part of the Rupununi we have the falls and the beach, why can’t we be involved as well? Why only Surama? We would like to concentrate on tourism projects here in central too.’
Yimochi Melville – ‘Basically, the roads where I live are in Culvert City are in terrible condition. One has been capped but the rest are in a deplorable state right now which is made worse because the roads are very dusty as a result of the dry weather right now. Another issue I want to raise is the lack of employment options available for persons living up here. A lot of young people are often seen loitering around the place; they have lots of idle time on their hands. I think we need an institute like GTI up here where the youth can better engage themselves. I have my own business up here and I have found that a lot of persons do not have adequate computer skills which is something that is needed or you would have to teach them from scratch.’
Immanuel Robeiro – ‘St Ignatius Village is in need of a health centre, all the other villages have health centres but we don’t. When people in the village get sick they have to go over to Lethem Hospital where they have to line up and wait to receive medical attention. Sometimes people even return home without receiving any treatment because the line is so long. So I think we need a health centre of our own along with a health worker.’
