28 persons living with disability receive business management training

The Guyana Council of Organisations for Persons with Disabilities (GCOPD) in partnership with the Small Business Bureau (SBB) and with support from ExxonMobil Guyana on Wednesday held a one-day entrepreneurship and small business management training workshop for 28 persons who are blind and visually impaired from Regions Two, Three, Four, Six and 10. The workshop was held in the conference room of the National Library, Georgetown.
In his presentation GCOPD Programme Manager, Ganesh Singh underscored the importance of persons who are blind and visually impaired attaining financial independence. He also highlighted the impact of the GCOPD ExxonMobil funded Orientation and Mobility programme on the lives of persons who are blind and visually impaired.
Additionally, Deputy Chief Executive Officer (DCEO) of SBB Simon Pollard highlighted the various training programmes and loan facilities available through the SBB. He also informed the participants of the special interest free loan facility available to persons with disabilities. Pollard encouraged the participants to apply for the interest free loan which has benefited twenty-seven (27) persons with disabilities since its launch.
Delivering remarks on behalf of the funder ExxonMobil Chricell Whitney, who said that the company’s commitment to empower persons with disabilities through their various community initiatives.
She said, “for ExxonMobil Guyana and community investment, we’re all about supporting initiatives that make a real difference, including for vulnerable groups.

To see this added component of small business management training, going beyond just living skills is driving this vulnerable group’s empowerment even further.”
The 28 participants were exposed to training in the areas of small business registration, functions of management, small business marketing, among other areas in the management of a small business.
The entrepreneurship/ small business management workshop is a component of the GCOPD ExxonMobil funded Orientation and Mobility training programme for persons who are blind and visually impaired. Since the commencement of the programme approximately seven hundred (700) persons who are blind and visually impaired were taught independent living skills such as how to use the “white cane”, use smart phones with text to speech software, etc.