At
first impression, Red Village appears to be quite peaceful and neat, albeit the modest homes in sight. Yet, this village unknown to many Guyanese, is troubled and struggles every day to survive. Its young people are the first victims of its poverty, and its women are its backbone.
The community, located several miles off the Suddie public road, was founded circa 2008 and is dotted by small SIMAP houses. It is home to a population of predominantly Amerindians and mixed, but has no health centre, community multipurpose building or properly maintained play field. The access road to Red Village is built with sand and loam, rendering it difficult to navigate during the rainy season, especially for pedestrians.
Last week the Guyana Empowered Peoples Action Network (GEPAN) published a report, “Insight Into Guyana’s Rural Communities – Struggles of the Essequibian Woman”, which captured the daily challenges with which the women of Red Village are confronted.
Based on a house-to-house survey conducted by the organisation, the majority of men work as manual and polyvalent labourers, or in the logging and mining sectors. Those who work in the logging and mining sectors are absent from their families for extended periods of time, going up to 4 – 6 months. Families depend on their return for income, or occasionally, on monies they earn, sent from the interior via third parties.
The women of Red Village, mostly of Amerindian ancestry, associate their disempowerment with inaccessibility to the job market due to varying factors, notably limited education and a significantly high level of unemployment on the Essequibo Coast.
Another problematic identified is the heavy consumption of illicit substances, in particular marijuana, by young men within the community. This is believed to be a direct consequence of the high level of school drop-outs due primarily to the financial difficulties faced by households. The mothers who were interviewed in the survey, singled out unemployment as the source of all the challenges affecting families. 27% of the women interviewed were employed, as opposed to a remaining 73%.
The consumption of illicit substances (mainly marijuana) as well as alcoholism ranks highly among young people who dropped out of school.
Teenage pregnancy was also picked up as another consequence of financial difficulties faced in single parent homes in Red Village. All teenage mothers surveyed dropped out of school, were unemployed and depended either on their families or their partners for financial support.
70% of the participants interviewed identified school drop-out and unemployment of young men to be a leading cause of the crime rate which plagues the community, especially at nightfall. Because of its high crime rate, Red Village is commonly thought of by Essequibians as an unsafe place for women in particular, leading to a certain form of stigmatisation for its occupants. Women interviewed explained that it is a challenge to raise their daughters in this environment, despite the presence of a Community Policing Group.
Boys are identified as the first victims of school drop-out because they are under pressure to provide financial support to their families. The removal of the annual government funded $10,000 back-to-school voucher per child, was deplored by those mothers who are unable to send their children to school regularly.
While Red Village is not located on Amerindian titled or propose title land, the majority of its population are of Amerindian lineage, mostly of Arawak, Carib and Warau descent, although Wai Wai and Patamona women were also identified during the survey.
As a result, it is the responsibility of the Indigenous Peoples Affairs Ministry to divert some of its attention and resources to this community in dire need of assistance, especially since its inhabitants are entitled to their Amerindian rights under the Amerindian Act no. 6 – 2006, regardless of whether they live on communal land or not.
A holistic approach necessitating the combined, urgent intervention of the Social Protection Ministry and regional authorities is also necessary to address the high level of teenage pregnancy and school drop-out which plagues Red Village. Sustainable initiatives targeting local job creation and capacity building is vital to assist families and keep them off the streets.
Until then, the women and children will continue to be the invisible faces of what seems to be another forgotten village of the Essequibo Coast.
Note: The information in this article was extracted from “Insight Into Guyana’s Rural Communities – Struggles of the Essequibian Woman”, a GEPAN report accessible here.(Send comments to [email protected])
