Georgetown women eager to take on business environment

Success in Business programme

First Lady Sandra Granger has charged the 46 Georgetown participants of the Self-Reliance and Success in Business Workshop to give back to their communities while expanding their businesses. The participants today graduated after successfully completing the five-day workshop, during which they were taught the skills necessary to lead lucrative business ventures. The workshop was held at the Regency Suites, Brickdam.
The First Lady, in her closing remarks, expressed her gratitude to the Social Protection Ministry for assisting with funding, and Interweave Solutions for its commitment to ensuring that the initiative is successfully executed throughout Guyana.
“Go back to your communities with the excitement and passion to move forward and to grow and expand your business,” she said.
The First Lady also stated that the Self- Reliance and Success in Business Workshop was aimed mainly at empowering women, but has since been extended to a number of men as well. In fact, there were two males in today’s batch of graduands.
Coordinator Shondel Hope said this initiative has successfully empowered women all across Guyana. “I want to challenge you to take all that you have learnt this week and go out and be your best selves; but see how best you can share that knowledge with the other persons within your community who are also business people. When you empower a woman, you empower a community; and so we feel it is time for women to break that ceiling and continue to climb that ladder of success,” she said.
Presenting their business plans to the gathering, Afaia Daly, Kim Gomes- Dainty, Deslinee Kerr and Ulita Moore described how they intend to incorporate into their lives the information they learned during the training sessions. Afaia Daly said, “I am going to set a goal and have a purpose, accept challenges as a natural part of life. With the community action plan, I will create a group that helps single parents in my community, because a lot of parents have challenges on a daily basis to provide for their children.”
Ulita Moore, in presenting her business plan, noted that she usually gets many questions from members of the public as to whether or not she makes a profit selling phone credit. “In this type of business, when asked if money is made, I tell them look around and see the amount of persons selling in the Bourda vicinity, then you will know if money is made. If you are going into this type of business, you must have a plan. My group decided that in order to bring my community together as we teach them about our jobs, we will have a cleanup campaign to reduce the pollution and other water-borne diseases”, she said.
Delivering the feature address, Chairperson of the Guyana Office for Investment, Patricia Bacchus, commended both the First Lady and the participants, and spoke of a few pointers she uses to accomplish being self-reliant.
The highlight of the event was the presentation of certificates to the participants, who are now equipped to prepare their own business plans, which they can submit to the Institute of Private Enterprise Development [IPED] or the Small Business Bureau to access grants or loans.