Dr. Sevanie Williams is a 29-year-old Cuban-trained Patamona woman, born and brought up at Paramakatoi. For the past six years she has steered her passion for working with hinterland botanicals in the direction of potentially ground-breaking research into re-growing hair follicles and eventually, hair in men with what is known as male pattern baldness. Male pattern baldness affects 50% of men worldwide and the research that she is undertaking places her in ‘competition’ with other more elaborate pursuits towards the same end, except that those are mostly backed by billions of dollars of what, invariably, are corporate investments, aware as the investors are of the lucrative returns to be recouped from, the global ‘good looks’ industry.
She believes that – arguably no less than the 2015 disclosure regarding the country’s oil and gas resources – her own recent breakthrough could mark a significant moment for Guyana. That is why, she says, she would welcome a ‘sit down’ with President David Granger (for whom she undertook the translation of a speech in Tuseng Village during the North Pakaraimas Expo 2018 event) to talk with him about what she believes are the steps that her efforts have realized so far and to explore the possibility of a measure of official support for what could, in the final analysis, be an undertaking of major national significance.
Up until now the advancement of her hugely ambitious pursuit has depended largely on the support of members of her family, keen to serve as ‘guinea pigs’ in her hair-regeneration experiment, as supporters in the gathering of the “plants and worms” for her work and as her foremost cheerleaders.
