Guyana to be home of 1st Red Crescent office for western hemisphere

Guyana is set to become the home of the first Red Crescent office in the Western Hemisphere, following a groundbreaking medical mission by a visiting team from the Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) that performed more than 50 life-saving surgeries at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) over the past week. The announcement was made by President Dr Irfaan Ali on Sunday evening during a dinner hosted in honour of the visiting Qatari Medical Convoy, marking what he described as “the beginning of a long and impactful partnership grounded in service, humanity, and mutual respect.” “Qatar has been leading in many areas of global development, and Qatar has also been leading in all efforts to enhance humanity and build stronger global citizens. This is the beginning of a long relationship between the Red Crescent of Qatar and the Government of Guyana,” President Ali said. “We hope that this partnership will not only benefit Guyana, but also the wider region, as we strengthen our capacity to serve humanity.”

The President emphasised that the establishment of a Red Crescent office in Guyana will enhance disaster preparedness, medical outreach, and humanitarian aid across Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)— regions highly susceptible to natural disasters. He reaffirmed Guyana’s willingness to provide both administrative and technical support to the initiative.

Healing and hope
The visiting Qatari team, comprising volunteer surgeons and specialists, worked alongside local doctors in the areas of cardiac surgery, gynaecology, paediatric urology and oncology. Their efforts resulted in more than 50 complex procedures — each one changing a life and strengthening the country’s growing medical capabilities. Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony, praised the collaboration and revealed plans for continued medical exchanges and advanced training opportunities for Guyanese doctors in Qatar. “I think we can learn a lot of lessons from you, so we will be leaning on you to see how we can move our hospital forward in the fastest possible way. Apart from the paediatric surgery that we did, we also did some adult surgery. And the doctor here also did a lot of surgeries in gynaecology… But what is also very important in some of this specialisation – we don’t have people with the skill set. So he has spent quite a lot of his time teaching some of our local doctors how to do – and these new techniques that can be used. So for example, one of the surgeries, he told me, you would spend about eight hours and he has been teaching our local doctors these techniques of how to do them and how to make sure that our patients come through these major surgeries in a good way,” he said. The Minister also hinted at more frequent missions — at least twice per year — as part of a structured long-term programme of medical and humanitarian cooperation. “We had, from the discussions we have had with the team, not only are they doing surgeries, but teaching as was said. But what we also want to do in the future is to have collaborations and they have already identified some of our doctors who would probably be able to go to Qatar and to have observerships and fellowships so that they can enhance their skills and come back to serve the people here. And we are also looking at other types of collaboration where more of these teams would come to Guyana and work with the local doctors. So, I think this partnership is going to grow as the year goes by,” Dr Anthony said. “Our doctors are being trained, new techniques are being shared, and together we are strengthening Guyana’s health system for generations to come.”