CIOG to build a women’s shelter & elderly home

Representatives from the Central Islamic Organization of Guyana (CIOG) met with the Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Dr. Vindhya Persaud, to discuss their plans to construct a shelter for women who survived abusive relationships and a care home for the elderly.

During the courtesy call at Dr Persaud’s office on Wednesday, Shameena Haniff-Najab, General Manager of CIOG, revealed that the proposed shelter will be able to accommodate 40 women and their children while the elderly home would be able to house 100 residents.

Dr Persaud congratulated the team for their humanitarian support and pledged her ministry’s commitment to work with the team to ensure appropriate and successful concept models are adopted to safeguard the welfare of the two vulnerable groups.

“The demand for the Ministry’s services is very high, therefore partnerships like these are critical to the Ministry’s ongoing services and programmes,” Dr Persaud noted.

Accompanying Ms. Haniff-Najab to the meeting were Goolzar Namdar, Deputy President CIOG; Joseph Gonsalves and Curtis Hann from Humanitarian Assistance Programme (HAP), a department within the US Embassy (Guyana).

HAP works closely with CIOG on a number of women’s empowerment projects. (Modified press release from Ministry of Human Services and Social Security)