African Guyanese Women expo launched

In commemoration of International Women’s Day, the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown and The United Nations Association of Guyana collaborated to launch an exhibition, titled ‘African Guyanese Women’.
The exhibition, housed at the Castellani House in Georgetown, seeks to celebrate and honour the contributions that Guyanese women have made to not only Guyana, but to the wider world as well. The exhibition also acts as a means of educating persons on great achievements by Guyanese women.
Speaking at the event, Principal of The Carnegie School of Home Economics, Penelope Harris, explained that much of what we are accustomed to in everyday life are compliments of the women in our society, especially the transfer of culture.
“I believe that women are the ones who pass on most of our culture, whether in the form of food, songs or religion,” she further explained while stating, “Women are the moral gatekeepers of our society; so when the morals of the women become low, the morals of the entire society will go low.”
A similar exhibition was first held in 2011, and it is because of the overwhelming response garnered by that exhibition that the curators became convinced that ‘African Guyanese Women’ would be ideal for the Women’s Day celebrations.
The exhibition features the life and work of popular Guyanese women like Marilyn Dewar, Winifred Gaskin, Shirley Field-Ridley, Viola Burnham and Elizabeth Harper. It also pays homage to those women who were forced to endure the hardships of slavery. The exhibition closes today, March 9.