Agri equipment, vehicles to benefit schoolchildren, village economy handed over to Region One villages

Government has started off 2022 with Amerindians benefitting from vehicles and vessels to ease
their livelihoods.
Amerindian Affairs Minister, Pauline Sukhai, over the weekend travelled to Barima-Waini
(Region One), where she presented tractors, a bus and a cheque for a boat to a few communities.
The villages of Mora, Parakeese, 7 Miles Branch Road, Cabrora and Kamwatta each received a
tractor, equipped with a trailer and harrow, to aid in their economic development through
agriculture.
The minister told the residents that the equipment will significantly boost the villages’
agricultural production and contribute to President, Irfaan Ali’s vision, of Guyana becoming an
agriculture powerhouse. Sukhai urged the village councils to properly manage the new assets to
ensure longevity. “If you keep your machine in order by servicing it at the right time, you will
get long life out of it. If you treat it wildly you will find breakage,” Sukhai said.
She continued, “These village assets are provided to support the needs of the community.
Tractors work on fuel, they need lubricants, caring and proper management.” The minister at
Kamwatta, presented a cheque for a boat that costs in excess of $300,000, to lessen the burden of
travel for residents. Meanwhile, at Skyland, a bus was handed over to the village council to
ensure children are able to travel to and from school in comfort, eliminating the miles-long walk.
Grace Henry, a parent is overjoyed that the government has delivered on its promise, to ensure
children can access education. Henry was quoted as explaining that the burden children had to
traverse in the sun and rain to get to school, is no more. “I’m very happy because I have four of
them and they have to walk, very early they get up like we prepare them like 4: 30 [hours] and
they wake up and by six o’clock finish eating already and before seven o’clock leave,” a teary
eye Henry said.
She added, “And they reach back very late, like five o’clock or after five every day from school.
So, I’m very happy with that, it will help them a lot. They won’t have to walk and when rain fall
they have to get umbrella or what, they just get the bus from the home to the school and from the
school to home.”
Acting Permanent Secretary of the Amerindian Affairs Ministry, Ryan Toolsiram, also urged
residents to properly manage the vehicle. He appealed to them to have a regular maintenance
schedule, for the bus to remain in operation.