$500,000 SBB grants granted to visually impaired Guyanese

The Government, through the Tourism, Industry and Commerce Ministry’s Small Business
Bureau (SBB) distributed grants to the tune of $500,000, to nine persons living with disabilities.
This forms part of them keeping with its commitment to ensure the livelihood of all Guyanese.
Minister, Oneidge Walrond, disclosed that the gesture is in keeping with the government’s ‘One
Guyana’ vision. Walrond was speaking at the grant distribution exercise held at the Guyana
Society for the Blind headquarters. “The idea is that no person should be left behind with the
economic development of our country. As a government, our policy has been one and continues
to be the ‘One Guyana’ initiative that every single person…can benefit from the resources of
government, and have the opportunity to better themselves, better their families and better their
communities,” the minister explained.

She revealed that in 2021, her ministry through the Guyana National Bureau of Standards
(GNBS) in collaboration with the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), launched
a two-day workshop in block making and money management.   The minister pointed out that
the initiative provided economic opportunities to vulnerable persons to achieve financial
stability.
Minister Walrond expressed hope that the grants will help the recipients to expand or establish
their own businesses. “Hopefully for you, this is now your spring board for bigger and better
things, for bigger and better business. We want you to be able to employ persons, we want you to
be able to say that your business is thriving so much that you are supporting six and seven
families. This is the kind of progress that we will like to see,” she argued.
Meanwhile, Programme Coordinator of the Guyana Council of Organisations for Persons with
Disabilities (GCOPD) Ganesh Singh, stressed that the community is grateful as this was
something they were pursuing for some time.   “It means a lot for the disability community
because it is a way of them getting the capital to grow to establish new businesses. We know
poverty and persons with disabilities, they have a marriage; it is inter-related and because of this,
we have been pushing to ensure that persons with disabilities have some level of financial
independence and one way we have been doing this is to promote small business
establishments,” Singh declared.
He added that further, the recipients have a variety of business ventures, which include food
processing, craft, and poultry ventures among others.