Dear Editor,
I was happy to read the article and interview with our diaspora folks in NY `Academics in NY diaspora want gov’t to concentrate on poverty, COVID, jobs for youths, oil transparency’ SN September 7th’.
Indeed, Guyana is very fortunate to have such a large and successful diaspora. The benefits are simply enormous from remittances to direct transfer of knowledge and injection of capital into the local economy. In addition, no one should underestimate the significant impact this group had on the reaction the US government had on the most recently concluded election.
I would encourage this news outlet to continue this series but to also venture outside of the NY Queens area. We have significant talents outside of NY and who have also spent their personal as well as their professional resources advocating for the betterment of Guyana. A quick reference to the Carter Center would reveal a real Guyanese flavoured interest which has been fostered by the small but important Guyanese diaspora in Georgia. Mercer University’s adoption of Guyana as a member state for their Mercer on mission program where they deploy specialty educators and scientists directly into the host country is an example. The diaspora students across this country including Harvard, Yale, MIT just to name a few have mobilized and with the help of locals in Guyana provided high quality educational material to Guyanese students, mostly rural for the recently concluded grade 6 exam. These are just a few examples but there are lots more.
Thank you and keep up the good work.
Yours faithfully,
Dr. John Shivdat
