Black Immigrant Daily News

Strengthening its ties with the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), the Ministry of Health on Tuesday renewed the strategic note, which outlines plans to assist the development of Guyana’s health sector.

The strategic note is renewed and signed every five years to demonstrate PAHO’s collaboration and commitment to the development of Guyana’s health sector. The note was signed by the Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony and Director of PAHO, Dr Carissa Etienne.

Speaking at the signing, Minister Anthony expressed his gratitude for the work PAHO has done in Guyana over the last decade,

“So, the note that we signed today, the strategic note, is very comprehensive, touching almost all aspects of health. Therefore, we are very pleased to be able to sign this note with the director of PAHO and be able to expand the work that they will be doing.”

Some of the areas which will continue to benefit from PAHO’s assistance include:

Technical assistance in disease surveillance and infectious diseases. It has helped with the control of malaria, elimination of neglected infections, and transmission of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), especially from mother to child.
Procurement of vaccines for immunisation, equipment, and other medical resources.
Expansion of the HEARTS in Americas initiative- a national approach to tackle cardiovascular disease.
Technical assistance in the development of health regulations and laws.
Human resource development- the training of more personnel in areas of high demand and scholarship opportunities.
PAHO has also agreed to work in the non-communicable diseases sector which includes cardiovascular diseases, cerebral vascular diseases, hypertension, etc.

Dr Etienne said she is proud of the ambitions Guyana has to renew the health sector and, in her time, remaining as Director of PAHO, will continue to give support.

“Welcome to a new Guyana where there is a strong commitment and lots of dedication to health and wellbeing, that you have aspirations in the beginning, not only as the center of excellence for Guyana, but a centre of excellence in many respects for the rest of the Caribbean and beyond and this is a dream and vision that you have every possibility to realise.”

“Over the last these last 10 years, Dr Etienne has certainly made a big impact. And I think we in the Caribbean benefited tremendously from her leadership because we were able to do a lot of programmes with PAHO. Over the last two years or so, we have had, I would say a very intensive relationship with PAHO in almost every area that we can think of.”

Succeeding Dr Etienne is Dr. Barbosa da Silva Jr., a national of Brazil, whose five-year term will begin on February 1, 2023.

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Armed bandits attacked the Morne Bakery in Castries shortly after noon on Wednesday and made off with cash.

“I was there receiving money from my drivers and shops, and in the process of receiving it, I heard a hard slamming at the glass door,” Managing Director Randall Alexander told reporters.

Alexander said the door swung open while he thought it was an unruly worker, and two gunmen appeared demanding to know where the money was.

“Get down! Pass the money!” The Managing Director recalled the gun-toting criminals saying.

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“Of course, I complied because they were armed,” he said.

He said the intruders searched the premises, eventually declaring that the money they had stolen was not all there was for the taking.

“And they were right because when I saw them I had a bundle of notes in my hand and I flung it underneath the desk and they pulled the desk and saw it,” Alexander recalled.

“I told them:’ Well, take everything.’ I had some bags of coins – they took the coins as well, and while searching, a third one came in and went through the other desk drawers and the cabinet. He went through my bag -burst a desk drawer,” he stated.

The bandits also took mobile phones and other valuables before fleeing.

The Morne Bakery official acknowledged the need for business owners to secure their premises and protect themselves from armed robbery.

However, he explained that business owners could only do so much.

He asserted that the criminal mindset has to change with draconian action by the authorities.

“Just talking and trying to appeal to these hardened criminals will not have any effect. They will continue. Burglaries will be on the rise, and people’s lives will be at risk,” Alexander declared.

According to the official, it may reach the point where Saint Lucia will be labeled ungovernable and a failed state.

“We have to take draconian measures. Don’t give in to persons like the human rights people and the sycophants who will talk about the rights of the criminals,” he stated.

“Right now it is rapidly descending into chaos and it seems like the authoirities cannot do anything,” he said

“It’s either we have a country or we give it up to the criminals,” he asserted.

“On the economic side, we know what it does to the economy. Persons are discouraged from running businesses. People are discouraged from making the extra sacrifice to generate income and create employment. Persons will just throw up their arms and surrender,” he lamented.

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Prime Minister Andrew Holness has implored critics of the Government’s plans for the Greater Bernard Lodge Development Project, to not disparage orderly housing development.

While stating that he is not opposed to the former sugar lands being subdivided and given to the descendants of slaves as a form of reparations, he said this must be done in an orderly and fair way.

“Who are the people who will inhabit the new Greater Bernard Development Project?

“It will still be the children, grandchildren, great, great grandchildren of the people who toiled as enslaved on this plantation, but it will be done in an orderly way, in a fair way, in a way that will guarantee a legacy for their children and grandchildren to come,” declared Holness.

He was speaking at Tuesday’s land-marking ceremony for the first Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) Academy that is being developed by the National Education Trust and the Ministry of Education and Youth in Dunbeholden, Bernard Lodge, St Catherine.

Holness has been facing backlash for his order authorising the demolition of unfinished housing structures on agricultural lands near Clifton that formed part of the Greater Bernard Lodge Development Project.

Among those criticising the prime minister’s decision is the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP), which has promised to assist the affected residents in taking legal action over the destruction of the structures.

However, Holness has fired back, contending that the lands were being taken and sold by members of the Clansman gang. So far, Suelyn Ward-Brown, a school principal, has been charged in relation to the illegal sale of lands.

On Tuesday, Holness again explained the plans for order relative to housing that the Government is seeking to embark on locally in the area.

“So let us not disparage orderly development. Let us not seek to cast it as being unfair, and let us not believe that it is only one set of people in Jamaica who has the moral conscience for right and wrong,” Holness contended.

In noting the views expressed on various platforms in the public domain that the land should be divided and given to farmers, Holness said: “I am not opposed to that”.

Continuing, he said: “I believe that as a part of the reparations for sugar and enslavement, that Government ought to take a very enlightened and proactive approach in ensuring that the average Jamaican gets access to land.

“But how do we do this? Do we just leave up the land and people go and settle on it, and then afterwards we come in and try to say, ‘Alright, let me move your boundary from where you had staked back 10 feet so that I can put a road for you, sewer there for you’, or ah may have to ask you to relocate from here to go elsewhere.

“Is that how it should be done?” asked the prime minister, adding that “There are those who feel it should be done like that.

However, he said the Government took an enlightened approach and acted before “chaos was allowed to reign”, by maintaining order in the distribution of land.

He said the lands in the Greater Bernard Lodge Development Project will not only be reserved for housing, but also for agriculture, commerce and education.

Approximately 1,000 acres will go to farmers, with 22 acres being reserved for social services, including a school.

In addition, lands have also been reserved for light industrial development within area.

“You are going to have a diversity of housing options here. We have reserved 100 acres of land for the NHT (National Housing Trust) and the HAJ (Housing Agency of Jamaica), to build houses that are accessible to those who fall within the low-income earning bracket.

“So this is not just going to be a place where only middle-income and upper-income (persons) will be able to live.

“The Government has given the land, not sold it. So the cost of the units will not have the cost of the land in it, and therefore, the prices will be lower,” stated Holness.

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