Black Immigrant Daily News

President Dr Irfaan Ali on Tuesday led an outreach to the West Coast of Demerara (WCD), where a number of current issues faced by residents and farmers were heard and plans for intervention were communicated.

The Head of State was accompanied by Foreign Affairs Minister Hugh Todd; Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha and Minister within the Public Works Ministry, Deodat Indar.

It was communicated that there were hundreds of acres of arable farmland within the Den Amstel community but there was a significant downturn in production. Further, farmers stated that prevailing weather conditions have been a bugbear, while some of them also called for additional equipment since they have been challenged in producing crops.

The President, while calling for a collective engagement with farmers, urged that all arable land be put to work.

“We are working for the upliftment of the community. We want to see all the communities prosper. This is why I am asking them now to either come in and see that the lands that are not in production, we can get them into production. That is important. That is revenue sitting down. So, we have to sit with the owners and come up with a mechanism through which they can go back to the land or they can either rent it legally,” the President explained.

Additionally, roads will be developed to ensure that farmers can access these lands. Road works on the Den Amstel sideline dam are almost completed. Another project is being carried out aback the community to the tune of $38 million.

“We’re spending a lot of money to upgrade the roads on the other side of Den Amstel, but what we want to do is involve the community, to have more concrete-type roads. It will involve more labour,” Ali noted.

The President and officials also took a look at the Den Amstel Community Centre Ground, which has been in a deplorable condition. He informed that a project was awarded for upgrades to the ground, the pavilion, and a bridge along with the installation of a basketball court.

“There needs some work on the bridge so I let them also work on doing some work. We have to work on ensuring that this thing is done very quickly now that we have the weather. And we have to monitor it too,” Ali told stakeholders.

At the Den Amstel Primary School, calls were made for the structure to be repainted and for certain facilities to be installed.

Chairman of the Den Amstel Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC), Kenton Hilliman lauded the work of the Ali-led Administration for the initiatives taken in the community.“I need to extend a firm gratitude to you for the amount of intervention in this community…We are going to profit from it,” the Chairman said.

Region Three (Essequibo Islands- West Demerara) is fast becoming a hub for investment opportunities in Guyana, especially with the establishment of the gas-to-energy project, a US$300 million Vreed-en-Hoop shore base facility, new private and public hospitals, and two four-lane highways.

Only recently, Housing and Water Minister Collin Croal had announced that some 2000 families in Region Three will benefit from affordable homes, as Government accelerates its turn-key housing project to meet the demand in the region.

In fact, 7000 house lots are being developed in Region Three, as part of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government’s drive to provide 50,000 house lots to Guyanese by the year 2025.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) has launched an investigation into the sudden death of a 39-year-old mother of five, Navita Maraj of Helena Mahaica, East Coast Berbice (ECD), and her unborn child.

Maraj passed away while in labour at Georgetown Public Hospital on Saturday. It was reported that the pregnant woman was under observation at the medical facility two days prior to her death.

She was reportedly supposed to have given birth via caesarean section, and two days before her due date while attending the clinic at GPHC, she was told that she would not return home but would be admitted to the hospital where she would remain under observation until her time of delivery.

At the time, the woman’s family said she was not experiencing any labour pains. However, later that day, Maraj took a turn for the worse and was given Oxytocin tablets to induce labour.

The following day, the family said they received a call from GPHC, informing them that they should go down to the hospital urgently. When they arrived, they claimed that they were told that the woman and her child had passed away.

According to the woman’s family, after learning of her death, they kept receiving conflicting information from the hospital about her demise. They claimed that even the post-mortem examination did not reflect what the GPHC team had told the family.

When contacted on Tuesday, GPHC Public Relations Officer Chelauna Providence related that an investigation has been launched into the incident and it was expected to be completed at the end of the week. However, so far, the post-mortem examination revealed that the woman died from a uterine rupture (spontaneous tearing of the uterus that may result in the foetus being expelled into the peritoneal cavity).

“We are still investigating that matter ,and we haven’t concluded that investigation as yet… we have been getting a lot of inquiries about this case, so definitely the investigation should be completed before the week is out,” she explained.

While the investigation into this case is still ongoing, the hospital has concluded an investigation into the death of Reshana Dindayal and her newborn baby who died at the GPHC last Wednesday after she allegedly fell and hit her head while she was heading to the washroom.

Dindayal, who was expecting her third child, was reportedly taken to the hospital on Wednesday morning after she began to experience labour pains.

The woman’s family claimed that after arriving at the hospital, she was admitted and was told that she was in stable condition.

Dindayal’s relatives were subsequently informed that after they left the hospital, she was heading to the washroom unattended when she fell and hit her head, and became unconscious.

A Caesarean Section was then performed on her, but shortly after, she and her baby girl died.

The family claimed that a post-mortem examination, which was performed on the body of the woman last Friday, failed to determine the cause of death.

Meanwhile, the hospital’s officials said that based on their investigation, the woman fell because she suffered cardiac arrest.

“Our preliminary findings found that the patient had very poor prenatal, she neglected to go to the prenatal clinic. We’ve recorded two prenatal clinic visits up until her admission.

We also found that she was using harmful substances throughout the pregnancy which would have contributed to her poor state of health.

“In addition to that, the family was claiming that the patient went to the washroom and fell, when in fact the patient had a cardiac arrest while she was at the hospital, which would have resulted in her falling”.

“It is not a case where she slipped and fell, but she suffered a cardiac arrest…,” the hospital claimed.

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The leader of Barbados’ second largest political party is petitioning Government’s decision to replace Independence Day with Barbados National Day.

Dr Ronnie Yearwood, president of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), has launched a petition on change.org, citing that the decision was “hasty and unwanted”. In an official statement on the DLP social media pages, Dr Yearwood contended that the country’s transition to a parliamentary republic was ” nothing but a baseless Mia Mottley Vanity project”.

He added that the move from Independence Day to Barbados National Day was a selfish attempt by the Barbadian Prime Minister to leave a legacy, while negating the national significance of November 30 to citizens.

“Independence is more than a word to Barbadians. It’s a source of pride. The day the iconic Broken Trident was raised to signify our break away from England. The birth of our national anthem penned by Irving Burgie and the pledge written by Lester Vaughn. We will not allow these moments to be erased.

We will not stand by as this Prime Minister tries to graffiti her way onto history’s page yet again by forcing another unwanted change onto the people of Barbados,” Dr Yearwood insisted.

He continued: “We are not combining Independence Day celebrations with Republic day celebrations. We are strict guardians of our heritage and we will not allow Mia Mottley to jockey her self-entitled legacy on the backs of those who came before her.

It doesn’t matter if you call it Barbados National Day or Barbados Republic Day, we do not want it if the plan is to rename Independence Day. The solution is to keep Independence Day and we will celebrate as we always have.”

The leader of the DLP argued that many citizens were still lost about what it meant to be a republic, therefore, Government’s focus should be on educating the public and not solely on celebrating.

“From the beginning of this process, the focus has been on Celebration, not Education. People cannot truly celebrate something they do not fully understand,” Dr Yearwood maintained.

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Basseterre, St. Kitts, November 01, 2022 (SKNIS): Her Excellency Nerys Dockery, Permanent Representative of St. Kitts and Nevis to the United Nations (UN), recently presented her credentials to the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during a brief and significant ceremony at the UN Headquarters in New York, U.S.A

Permanent Representative Dockery reiterated Prime Minister the Honourable Dr. Terrance Drew’s “deep and enduring commitment to the United Nations and to the spirit of multilateralism that it seeks to protect and defend.”

“I pledge to you today Secretary-General that during my tenure, St. Kitts and Nevis will add value to the work of the UN even as you do the same for the people of my great country. I look forward to working with you and to our fruitful engagement over the next few weeks and months,” said Her Excellency Dockery.

She expressed delight in being St. Kitts and Nevis’ youngest and first female Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

“My presence here signifies a new approach being taken by a new and youthful administration that is eager to add its shoulder to the wheel along with progressive leaders around the world who are impatient for the creation of a more just, inclusive and equitable world. It is an administration which has begun with this ultimate objective in mind, and as such, is proceeding with a great sense of urgency to get things done and deliver tangible benefits that will improve the wellbeing and standard of living of our people,” said Her Excellency Dockery.

Her Excellency Dockery noted that since her arrival in New York, work has begun to “build and expand” St. Kitts and Nevis’ networks at the United Nations. Additionally, she has actively participated and enhanced the Federation’s influence in “collective actions to resolve problems faced by the human family,” as well as re-established and reaffirmed old partnerships and aggressively face new ones with like-minded countries in order to advance our agenda to take our tiny twin-island federation back to number one again.”

Permanent Representative Dockery said that it is St. Kitts and Nevis’ “firm belief that the United Nations provides indispensable global leadership in addressing humanity’s common challenges and endeavour.”

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