Work and Play

We are fast approaching the end of our year in Guyana.  We had a few gloomy weeks after Easter when Steve and I both felt a little homesick  - probably a reaction to our children leaving Guyana after their exciting visit. We also said farewell to lots of fellow volunteers during May and June, and this also made us think about home. We are now a bit surprised to find that it is already late June, and we have so little time left to complete our various planned projects before we leave in early August.

In terms of work, Halina is busier than ever. My planning, research and development work over the last 10 months is starting to pay dividends. Some highlights are...

I have supported the National Disabled Persons’ Network and helped members make a successful application for a grant from a Finnish funder – Abilis - to meet the costs of travel to meetings, a national conference and some part time help for this new national networking group.


A US$ 30,000 funding application to the Australian Government’s Direct Aid Programme was also successful, so that one of the few accessible community centres here is getting an upgrade, with a security fence, a benab (traditional outdoor shelter), a play ground and new indoor and outdoor sports equipment. 


Lyndon, a member of the  group using the centre (Disabled Persons Network Region 4 East Coast) has been taken on by the building crew and shows off his work on the fence.

I have enjoyed working with members of Disabled Persons Network Region 5, developing a business plan and two successful funding bids for small grants to support their new businesses, making bed sheets and concrete fireplaces. Thanks to the FROGs fund and the British High Commission for supporting real social entrepreneurs (though this term is not much used yet in Guyana)....

A challenging piece of work has been to write  constitutions and apply for registration as Friendly Societies on behalf of the six regional Disabled Persons Networks. The system of establishing a legal status for voluntary sector organisations in Guyana is long winded, bureaucratic and outdated (say some government officers and politicians as well as me, I hasten to add). However, there is no alternative legal formats or simple processes as yet...

..but all my visits to the Office of the Registrar of Friendly Societies has resulted in working with a helpful member of staff, who is also a community activist in his own village in Region 3. We have set up a new group - the West Demerara Disablity Action Group - and over 40 people came to the first meeting. A steering group then met  to sort out the aims and objectives. I'm glad that they are still mostly smiling even after the post-it note planning exercise....

With only four fully accessible community centres serving relatively small areas across 10 huge regions, it is not surprising that disability groups in Guyana want to acquire their own buildings. Some regional groups meet in their local hospital, special school or even a disused store room of the local bauxite plant. I am supporting the Disabled Persons Networks in Region 6 and Region 7 to lobby their local Regional Democratic Councils (RDCs) to provide them with a plot of land. I am struck at how similar the work is with local politicians in different parts of the world....

One group's building is old and in serious need of repairs. I have searched for potential funders and I am now working with the fantastic volunteers in Port Mourant to write a bid to improve their community centre.  


In terms of my more strategic work, I have knocked on lots of doors, written letters, made presentations and met with politicians and business leaders to try to get them to consider persons with disabilities as employees. I am also looking for more financial support from businesses for my placement organisation. I have managed to meet up with the chair of the private sector lead body here, and have an offer to talk to business leaders about disability issues as well as  approach them for funding.

There are lots of challenges and downsides to my work too.  It is difficult to find sustainable funding for disability work in Guyana. For most Guyanese NGOs, international donors are still the major sources of funding, with local businesses also being approached (constantly) to provide smaller one-off amounts. There are almost no public sector grants or commissions, nor are there any in-country charitable trusts. Disability is not a high profile area for many funders, and Guyana is a slightly less indebted country than others (regionally and globally), so is often not a priority for international funding bodies.

Other work challenges include the obvious geographical ones - communication and access is difficult across the huge distances between communities, with few paved roads, lots of rivers without bridges, limited internet and little computer ownership, and - in some places - no phone coverage, intermittent electricity and seasonal floods. 


The less obvious challenge is the lack of long term support systems for the voluntary sector - no national or local infrastructure organisations, no NCVO or local councils of voluntary service. There is some training available for community activists - workshops run by international volunteers or as part of donor programmes - but nothing regular, basic or responsive to the needs of local community groups.

Despite lots of work, we also continue to have lots of fun. There are all those pot luck suppers and leaving celebrations. Sam and Dan said goodbye with a weekend in Pandama Wines, a rural retreat with a great swimming creek.


The creek was surrounded by trees and we saw toucans, woodpeckers and golden-handed tamarin monkeys. There were also these peculiar critters in the creek...

We had a bonfire and some brave souls hung their hammocks round the fire in the trees .... it rained, of course! We were in the dry under the roof of the main building.

Pandama produce their own wines (have we mentioned that wine is very expensive and not very good here?) - we liked their Sorrel wine and even bought some!

We asked another visitor to take a group photo with Tracy and Warren who own Pandama - we forgot to tell them how to use the camera so no pictures.  However we went to see Damian 'Jr Gong' Marley (son of Bob) at the National Stadium and Pandama had a stand there so we got our photo. 














The event was billed as a family day so we had hopes of a reasonably early finish...... needless to say the main man didn't come on til after midnight.  Some of us "rested our eyes" whilst waiting.

This is Tiffany the receptionist with NCD (National Commission on Disability) who is great friends with Tessa (who has now returned to the Netherlands).  Here they are at Candas and Al's leaving party.

Damian put on a good show, though the consensus among the oldies was that his dad was better!  Stars of the performance were his dreads, they came down to his ankles (though someone suggested they'd seen him on the plane without them....), the guy who waved the Jamaican flag throughout, and the two backing singers who really put out some energy.

Back in Georgetown, we fulfilled a long held ambition to go up the lighthouse which stands near the junction of the Demerara river and the Atlantic Ocean.  The viewing platform feels quite exposed, but you can go even higher into the light chamber which appeared to be rotated by a falling weight - though probably not any more.

The Atlantic in the background, Bristol behind Halina's left ear

We just got down in time as an entire school was making its way up as we came down. Where they were going to put them at the top we couldn't work out.

We finally made it into the National Stadium ground when we went to watch the Guyanese "Golden Jaguars" play in a World Cup group elimination match against Costa Rica - they lost 4-0.  It was a good experience though as the crowd are very well behaved and humorous.  Getting home was another story as there is no mass transport system to the stadium.  We were eventually picked up by a colleague of Drew's and given a lift home on their flatbed truck.


We went to all the films in a European Film Festival (they were free!) and in the last one, about Vaclav Havel the Czech President, Donald Ramotar, our esteemed president attended and sat about 10 feet away from us - this does not happen very often in the UK!


We are now getting ready to leave Guyana, and are looking forward to coming back to the UK to live in a cooler and less humid climate. But is it still afloat?