Georgetown, Guyana – (August 31, 2018) First Lady, Mrs. Sandra Granger charged the 46 Georgetown participants of the Self- Reliance and Success in Business Workshop to give back to their communities while expanding their businesses. The participants today, graduated after successfully completed the five-day workshop, during which they were taught the skills necessary to lead lucrative business ventures. The workshop was held at the Regency Suites, Brickdam.
The First Lady, in her closing remarks, expressed her gratitude to the Ministry of Social Protection for assisting with funding and Interweave Solutions for their commitment to ensuring that the initiative is successfully executed throughout Guyana. “Go back to your communities with the excitement and passion to move forward and to grow and expand your business,” she said.
The First Lady also stated that the Self- Reliance and Success in Business Workshop was mainly aimed at empowering women but has since been extended to a number of men as well. In fact, there were two males in today’s batch of graduands.
Coordinator, Ms. Shondel Hope said that this initiative has successfully empowered women all across Guyana. “I want to challenge you to take all that you have learnt this week and go out and be your best selves, but see how best you can share that knowledge with the other persons within your community who are also business people. When you empower a woman, you empower a community, and so we feel it is time for women to break that ceiling and continue to climb that ladder of success,” she said.
Presenting their business plans to the gathering, Mr. Corwin James, Ms. Afaia Daly, Mrs. Kim Gomes- Dainty, Ms. Deslinee Kerr and Ms. Ulita Moore identified how they intend to incorporate the information they learned during the training sessions into their lives. Ms. Afaia Daly said that “I am going to set a goal and have a purpose, accept challenges as a natural part of life. With the community action plan I will create a group that helps single parents in my community because a lot of parents have challenges on a daily basis to provide for their children.”
Ms. Ulita Moore, in presenting her business plan, noted that she usually gets many questions from members of the public as to whether or not she makes a profit selling phone credit. “In this type of business when asked if money is made I tell them look around and see the amount of persons selling in the Bourda vicinity then you will know if money is made. If you are going into this type of business you must have a plan. My group decided that in order to bring my community together as we teach them about our jobs, we will have a cleanup campaign to reduce the pollution and other water borne diseases, she said.
Delivering the feature address, Chairperson of the Guyana Office for Investment, Ms. Patricia Bacchus commended both the First Lady and the participants and spoke of a few pointers she uses to accomplish being self-reliant.
“It is important to build confidence in yourself and the resilience, perseverance and will to try and try again until you succeed. Set goals and identify what it is you want and put timelines to each step of your goal. The absolute worst thing you could do to yourself is to give up and not believe in yourself. Understanding the legal structure for your business can be a difficult process but with enough time and effort and even changing things along the way, because you wouldn’t get everything right all the time, you will succeed,” she said.
The highlight of the event was the presentation of certificates to the participants, who are now equipped to prepare their own business plans, which they can submit to the Institute of Private Enterprise Development [IPED] or the Small Business Bureau to access grants or loans.
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