Diaspora Unit now staffed to offer enhanced services to Guyanese overseas

Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Transport and Harbours Department, Rosalinda Rasul, is the new Head of the Diaspora Unit within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

She will be supported in her duties of leading the government’s diaspora engagement activities by Foreign Service Staff and former Head of the Consular Section of Guyana’s Embassy in Belgium, Leroy Adolphus.

The appointments were announced on Thursday by Foreign Secretary, Robert Persaud who said that the infrastructure was also being set up at Takuba Lodge for the functioning of that Unit.

“Currently they will be the ones spearheading the day-to-day work, working closely with me in terms of rolling that out,” he said.

Rasul, who is also the Director of the Canawaima Ferry Services Inc. brings to the post a wealth of skills in management and years of service in local and international private sector engagements.

In brief comments via telephone, Rasul told the News Room that she intends to offer her in-depth understanding of what is required for engagement with people outside of Guyana and align expectations with the national development agenda.

“It is something up my alley in terms of the kind of work I like, in that it involves people and gives me an opportunity to make things work… Nobody was ever been able to get the Guyanese diaspora involved structurally and it gives me the opportunity to be possibly the first person to deliver,” she said.

Meanwhile, Adolphus who in 2017 was posted as the First Secretary to the Guyana Embassy in Belgium and Guyana’s Permanent Mission to the European Union (EU), is also happy to take up the post.

Adolphus, who served for several years across the regional media landscape and later became employed at the then Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was posted in 2017 to Guyana’s Embassy in Belgium.

During that time, he worked on several multilateral issues and participated in a sub-committee of the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific group of states on political, humanitarian and cultural matters, exposing him to work in diaspora affairs.

While in Belgium, he interfaced with the diaspora in France, the Netherlands, Germany and wider Europe.

The Unit was set up as part of enhancing the government’s plans of engaging and involving the Diaspora to support its national development priorities, allowing for an enhanced, sustained, and coordinated engagement with all Guyanese abroad.

The Ministry said it is focused on better harnessing the expertise, talent, and investment potential within the global Guyanese community.