Berbicians could save $$$ after completing skills training – Labour Minister

Scores of young persons on the Corentyne, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), on Saturday completed the final phase of the skills advancement training programme.
Labour Minister Joseph Hamilton, while addressing the graduates at the conclusion of the programme, explained that the skills they have acquired during the four months could help them to save dollars.
One hundred and eleven persons completed the courses which were offered by the Humanitarian Mission Guyana Inc of Port Mourant.
“These programmes that we do and that the Mission do and the ones that we will help them to do continually are important to communities and societies so that they can help families to save money,” Hamilton said.
According to the Labour Minister, with the high costs attached to sewing, cake making and make-up for females, it is hoped that the graduands will put their skills to good use.
The courses were Information Technology (7), Electrical Installation (6), Cooking (15), Cake making (19), Sewing – basic (26) advanced (10), make-up (25) and nails (3).
They were done under the Board of Industrial Training (BIT) programme which falls under the Education Ministry but is rolled out by the Labour Ministry.
Meanwhile, Head of the Mission, Pandit Surish Sugrim called on all of them to put the skills they would have acquired to good use.
“I implore on each one of you to go out of here with confidence and live a good and generous life.”
The Mission has been offering continuous educational programmes it hopes will benefit Guyana’s future generation. The Humanitarian Mission aims to educate, empower, and elevate individuals. Its goal is to break the cycle of poverty through education/empowerment and creating jobs.
Also speaking was Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha, who is one of the parliamentary representatives for Region Six. Mustapha was at the time representing President Dr Irfaan Ali.

He noted that the current Administration is placing a lot of emphasis on education.
“While our Government is working every single day and our President is once again putting Guyana in the spotlight in the Caribbean and the world, we as a people will have to ensure that not only our economy develop; not only our infrastructure develops but we must develop our human resource so that we can be prepared to make Guyana the economic powerhouse in this hemisphere, so we will need people with skills.”
Meanwhile, Mustapha also used the occasion to launch “Women Let’s Rise” which is the women’s arm of the Mission.
Women Let’s Rise has as its main focus tackling domestic violence.
According to Mustapha, domestic violence affects all genders.
“It might be that women are being affected more and we in our country have to do more to curb this scourge that is affecting our country.”
Mustapha referred to education as being the key to reduce domestic violence in Guyana.
He congratulated the Humanitarian Mission for the various measures they have been implementing to tackle domestic violence, saying that Government cannot do it alone and needs civil society to play along as he called on other Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to assist.
“A multi-faceted approach is needed to deal with gender-based violence. All organisations have to use all strategies because domestic violence has been affecting people for centuries. Domestic violence is a very old activity from the inception of society and we have seen that many times our women folks are being affected and today it is on the rise. So, we have to work together as a united body to curb this. We must not only look to the Government,” Mustapha said as he launched the new group.
Unfortunately, at Saturday’s graduation exercise, all COVID-19 guidelines implemented by the National Task Force and Health Ministry were not enforced. (G4)