Enhancing capacity to market Guyana’s tourism product is an important preoccupation particularly in indigenous areas and on Saturday, March 11, some 25 residents of Mainstay-Whyaka, including Toshao Joel Fredericks and councillors, participated in a tourism and hospitality training exercise.
Mainstay/Whyaka is an indigenous community some four miles inland from Anna Regina on the Essequibo coast, with a population of approximately 600 people. It is a largely forested area and part of the lake district includes Capoey and Tapakuma.
The initiative, which was executed by the training agency Cerulean Inc, a locally registered training and consultancy company, was part of a community-based, capacity-building corporate citizenship enterprise undertaken by Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL). The design of the training programme was guided by the community’s councillors, on a shared vision of the needs of the community.
This project, according to Cerulean, sought to help respond to the need to create an increased level of economic opportunity in the face of high unemployment in the community. One of its hoped-for outcomes is that it will enable greater access to affordable vocational skills training for youth and women particularly in the areas of cottage industries. Part of the focus of the training exercise also focused on the empowerment of the community’s young people through sports coaching and mentoring.
The community, with the support of both the Government of Guyana and private sector, has embarked on several micro socio-economic development projects and was the venue for the launch of the Amerindian Heritage Month 2016.
The exercise was coordinated by Cerulean Managing Director Lyndell Danzie-Black.
