Laing Avenue, Yarrow Dam residents to benefit from $50M home improvement programme

Residents of Laing Avenue and Yarrow Dam, Georgetown will benefit from a $50 million Home Improvement Programme that is being rolled out by the government as it works towards improving the lives of every Guyanese.

Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo made the announcement during follow-up community meetings on Monday afternoon.

He was accompanied by Minister of Labour, Joseph Hamilton, Director of the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) scholarship programme and the 11 elected councillors to the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC).

Necessary systems will be put in place through consultations with the government and a committee, that will comprise residents from each area. An estimated 252 households are set to benefit.

“We’ll have an ongoing engagement, this is not a one-off thing, it means we’d have to work continuously until we have development in these areas, so we’ll talk a bit on how we pursue and the mechanism through which we will do it,” the VP told residents.

Youths were informed of the many training opportunities available in the oil and gas sector.

“The jobs can be very high paying but we need to get people to organise themselves … We can give skills like carpentry … Welding is a badly needed skill, electrician and that other sort of training because with the building boom now taking place in the country, we need a lot of those,” he further disclosed.

Teachers were encouraged to make use of the GOAL’s ‘Teach children how to read’ scholarship programme that is targeting, 500 teachers through the scholarship programme.

Young entrepreneurs were also urged to make use of the business training programme that is offered by the Small Business Bureau (SBB) of the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce.

Similarly, a committee has to be formed in Yarrow Dam, to develop a mechanism whereby all persons benefit from the Home Improvement Programme.

Residents will also benefit from a paved road, that will be undertaken by the Ministry of Public Works, for which the contract has already been awarded.

Drainage and irrigation, and land ownership were among the key issues raised by residents in this areas.

“I’ll bring the Minster of Housing (Collin Croal) and his technical people and I can send them out back, they’ll look at the areas, if it’s not contentious, I don’t see a reason why we can’t do it,” the Vice president added.

These are commitments being fulfilled by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic administration, made during its campaign trail leading up to the 2023 Local Government Elections.