The vulnerability of women without formal education, which severely constrains their income generation/ wealth-creation capabilities, has been the primary causative factor of women remaining in abusive relationships, especially where providing requisite necessities of offspring is of major consideration.
Successive PPP/C Governments have tried to ameliorate the social dislocations of families caused by such dysfunctional family constructs in multiple ways. The Women of Worth economic initiative, launched by then Social Services Minister Priya Manickchand, was established as a loan programme that provided low-interest and collateral-free loans to single-parent women from lower-income brackets who wished to start up or expand their businesses.
As former and current Education Minister, Minister Priya Manickchand formulated systems in the academic arena that levelled the educational playing field and fructified in top students at all levels emerging from not only the elite schools, but in schools countrywide.
On September 5, 2020, she launched the Workforce Recovery Initiative programme in Guyana that offered free online courses from reputable universities through Coursera, and the number of Guyanese that had registered for the Workforce Recovery Initiative offered by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) and Coursera to pursue free online courses on the Coursera platform were tremendous. She had, unsurprisingly, been selected as a mentor on the Commonwealth Wise Woman Mentoring Project.
Her continuous activism in formulating programmes and advocating for girls and women to recognise their value and achieve their full potential has been refreshing and inspiring.
She first became a Member of Parliament in 2006, serving initially as Human Services and Social Security Minister, and she had used the platform presented by that portfolio to address the disadvantages of the vulnerable in society, primarily the scourge of violence against women and children. She published a National Policy on Domestic Violence, and piloted legislation that provide for protective and developmental landscapes for children to thrive and grow in safe environments.
For her proactive initiatives in educating/empowering the vulnerable in society, then Education Minister Manickchand was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate from the Lesley University in Boston, Massachusetts, USA in 2014.
To foster empowerment and build skill sets for women and girls, especially school drop-outs, the Human Services Ministry launched a women empowerment programme on May 7, 2021.
The Women’s Innovation and Investment Network (WIIN), which seeks to help women and girls become financially independent, will be piloted in Baramita, Region One (Barima-Waini). However, the programme, which offers free training in information and communication technology, decor and design, graphics, beauty and wellness, professional care, garment and hospitality, and administration et al, to be delivered both in-person and online, is open to women from all across Guyana.
WIIN is an offshoot of WE LIFT, an empowerment exercise for women that was held at the Guyana Conference Centre.
Persaud had said that people have to be able to see, seize and create opportunities in preparation of where our country is going, and be very creative so that they have a competitive edge in promoting their skills. Plans are also afoot for a series of technical vocational training programmes to be rolled out across the country. People can access these through online applications, hard copy applications at Ministry locations, and through community outreaches that have already commenced.
Education/skills training and development are primary factors in cultivating economic independence for vulnerable persons, and to further this, the ministry has set up a female-centric business incubator at the Guyana Women’s Leadership Institute, where WIIN and other programmes would be activated through primarily the Guyana Women s Leadership Institute, with correlating centres throughout the country.
Mental health issues mainly stem from depression, primarily caused by helplessness and hopelessness. The empowerment/educational/skills training programmes may catalyse a surge of hope in lives long existing in physical subjugation, emotional despair and mental bondage.
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