By Leroy Smith
Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources Simona Broomes at the weekend led a team into the community of Anns Grove where she met with residents.
The outreach was part of a wider government initiative to have ministers fan out to various communities where they are expected to meet with the communities, listen to residents and their concerns and enlighten them of what systems the government is putting in place to address certain key issues.
Upon her arrival to the Community on Saturday (July 08, 2017), residents opted to lead her and her team through several street in the community with the sounds of drums, dancing and singing.
Following that, Broomes did door to door visits in the community where various issues were raised with her including drainage, water, road and other areas of concerns for the residents.
Later in the afternoon, a meeting which was attended by close to four hundred persons was held and it was there that the community took certain decision on the way forward after raising some critical issues.
Among one of the key areas of concern for them was the erecting of a fence at a location where dozens of residents usually do their farming to sell produce on a retail and wholesale scale.
The residents told the minister that some time ago, the area had a perimeter fence but that had eventually collapsed and their produce were exposed to animals which would eat and trample on the plants.
A donation of several thousand dollars was given to the persons who has been leading the rebuilding efforts of that fence even as the community planned to pool resources from at least two community activities they had in the past, to raise funds.
Added to that, a women’s group was formed in the community and they are expected to ensure that the welfare of the village’s females are taken care of.
There were also several women who are involved in mining and who have relatives working in the interior locations of Guyana who met with the Junior Natural Rasources Minister during her visit on Saturday.
The Community requested that the minister return at some point very soon so that they can continue discussion of other matters and urged that she be accompanied by other officials who will be able to speak directly to their respective sectors and make commitment.
The Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence also had a presence in the community on Saturday during the Minister’s visit.
