Working in Guyana

Some people have asked what we actually do in our volunteer work here in Guyana - this needs a bit of background about the country to make sense.

Halina's VSO post is as an Organisational Development Advisor with Guyana Community Based Rehabilitation Programme (GCBRP), a long established voluntary organisation that trains volunteers to support persons with disabilities in their communities as well as campaigning for disability rights. It is one of the few organisations trying to operate across the whole few country - most other voluntary groups are Georgetown focused.

DPN Region 2 Committee meeting

A couple of years ago, six GCBRP regional groups established themselves as autonomous organisations - Disabled Peoples Networks (DPNs).  Halina's job is to assist both GCBRP as a whole and the regional DPNs to achieve their goals and become more sustainable organisations. 

The GCBR team at a leaving event for a VSO colleague.

Steve has come as a "supporting partner" in VSO terms, but is in great demand for his ability and willingness to mend, sort out and set up computers and other bits of office equipment, to help people to use computer programmes in their work, and to deal with numerous computer glitches that affect almost everyone from time to time. In fact, Steve is so often in Halina's office that he has become an integral part of the team!

Guyana is a big country with a small population of 760,000 people, who mostly live in the capital city, Georgetown or along the Atlantic coastal strip.  The country’s history means that there is a rich diversity of residents with African, East Indian, Chinese and Portuguese origins, alongside the ten remaining native Amerindian groups.

Catching the speedboat on the way to a meeting

80% of the country is pristine rainforest, and there are few surfaced roads. Guyana's many rivers are both great transport routes and real barriers to getting around. There are only two bridges across the river mouths flowing into the Atlantic - the Demerara and the Berbice bridges - so travelling to the more remote regions involves exciting speed boat journeys, often in the driving rain.

Lots of people continue to leave the country in search of a better life. There are more Guyanese living in New York and Toronto than in the whole of Guyana! Emigrants are mainly professionals with higher education, which means that those unable to leave - persons with disabilities, older people, unskilled workers - become a bigger proportion of the population as a whole. Though many residents are supported by family earnings from abroad, this Moneygram culture distorts the economy, making some prices very expensive compared to earnings.

Gold mining in the rain forest

Guyana's economy still largely relies on mining, agriculture and forestry - sugar, rice, timber and shrimps are the major products. Bauxite mining has declined, but there is a now a gold rush underway. "Pork knockers" - miners - are to be found in the many small scale mining operations scarring the rainforest and riverbanks.  Large ex-army trucks carrying mining equipment are everywhere, covered in the red dust of unmade tracks that comprise most of the road system in Guyana. A Canadian company is undertaking oil exploration. Then there is the grey economy - the illicit drug smuggling made easy with the long (empty) borders and coastlines - and, it is said, a high degree of corruption.

Timber is plentiful, though we are not sure how much is being managed in a sustainable way. The Iwokrama Rainforest Project and Conservation International are both active here. There is a plan to get Western nations to sponsor parts of the rainforest to preserve it, with all its amazing bio-diversity, though only Norway has signed up to the scheme so far. Eco-tourism is in its infancy, and visits to see the natural wonders of Guyana are incredibly expensive and immensely difficult to organise.

So... there is poverty here in the midst of wealth, little manufacturing or processing (almost everything for sale in the many shops and stalls comes into the country in containers from China) and a constant loss of skilled people. There is also a high crime rate (see previous blogs) and poor infrastructure - no drinkable  tap water, regular power cuts and rubbish everywhere, mostly plastic bottles and packaging.

Grace from DPN Region 4 East Coast Demerara

Persons with disabilities are some of the poorest people in Guyana. It is hard to imagine the daily hardships of some of the people that I work with, who remain amazingly cheerful and optimistic. Most are unemployed, many have had little schooling - people still hide their children with disabilities at home, and schools have few special needs facilities or teachers - and all live on small incomes - benefits are insufficient to buy enough food, let alone pay for independent housing, transport or care. It was only in 2010 that Guyana finally passed its first ever legislation on disability rights - but there are no extra resources to provide for any accessible buildings, facilities or transport.

One of the few purpose built regional centres for persons with disabilities, now in need of modernisation

Members of DPN Region 5

I arrived at a time of change for Guyana Community Based Rehabilitation Programme. All of its long term aid from Western donors was coming to an end, and some of its original services - training volunteers to provide community based rehabilitation  -  had been picked up by the  Ministry of Health. So...there was a need both to rethink its priorities, and to attract a more mixed income stream from more local, in-country supporters and investors. 


For the Disabled Persons Networks, there was a mixed picture -  some groups were developing quickly with capable leaders whilst others were struggling. The National Disabled Persons Network existed in name only - it had a committee but no funds so had never met and could not support it's regional groups.


I have worked with GCBRP to help them develop a new Strategic Plan (including proposals to deliver more vocational training and employment support services), researched and contacted potential funders, and written a number of funding bids for both GCBRP and the Disabled Persons Networks. One small bid has been successful, and we are waiting to hear about the rest. 

Meeting of DPN Region 5 members and the President(far right)

I am also working with groups to improve their networks and partnerships, and to help them lobby and campaign better. Recently, this has involved some exciting meetings with senior decision makers, including the newly elected President of Guyana, Donald Ramotar, the Mayor of Georgetown, Mr Hamilton Green, and the First Lady, Mrs Deolatchmee Ramotar.

The Mayor (first left), Mrs Geraldine Halls and a Canadian VSO.

Mrs Ramotar is in the grey trouser suit. The photo includes GCBRP staff,  volunteers and committee members.  


We are hoping that Mrs Ramotar will become a sponsor of the organisation and help us make contact with business leaders in Georgetown.


We have now completed six months of our placement and there seems more to do than ever!  


If one of the major bids for funds is successful then I will feel my time here has been a well worth while ... and there will be serious amounts of Organisational Development Advice required!