$5M Reg. 5 centre to market products from Moraikobai

By Richard Bhainie

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Residents from the Amerindian village of Moraikobai, Region Five (Mahaica – Berbice) will soon have a permanent place to sell their craft and other produce at a new craft production centre.

The centre is being constructed by the Region Five Regional Democratic Council at a cost of over $5 million at the Amerindian Hostel Compound in Mahaicony where residents of Moraikobai would stay when visiting the coast.

Moraikobai is the only Amerindian Village in Region Five; it is located some 96 miles from the confluence of the Mahaicony River.  Home to approximately 1,200 people, residents of the village are involved in logging, farming, hunting and craft production as part of their livelihoods.

“There are persons who would want a piece of Moraikobai be it cassava bread, or some wildlife, or some craft and there’s nowhere for them [villagers] to display it.

“So, what we’re doing here, we’re building a building that will assist them so they can bring their produce out and they will have someone free of cost to market and sell their produce,” Regional Executive Officer, ​​Genevieve Blackman told the News Room on Tuesday at the Amerindian Hostel, Mahaicony.

The craft production centre is being constructed by the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) upon the request of the villagers who found it challenging to market their produce.

“The input actually came from the village council of Moraikobai, they met with residents and residents were complaining that there is nowhere for them to market or sell their produce,” Blackman said.

Toshao of Moraikobai, Derrick John, said that the centre will help to boost the village’s economy through direct employment as persons would be stationed at the centre.

He also noted that the centre will eliminate the need for persons to stay at the hostel for days in order to sell or market their products as they will now be able to deliver it at the centre where it can be sold in their absence.

“When it’s completed, we will have a place that we can be able to bring out our produce, whether it’s cassava bread, cassareep, craft or whatever; the residents can be certain that there will be a place that they can market,” the Toshao said.

Indranie John, a resident of Moraikobai, told the News Room that she and others would make jewellery boxes, phone cases, bowls, dolls, carpets, toy animals and much more.

“We’re grateful. It will be a real boost to us because when our craft is out here we can assure that our craft will be sold [because] we don’t have a ready market, we don’t have a ready market, we don’t have a place we usually sell to,” John said.

Completion of the centre is expected at the end of June 2022.