Position: Analyst
Location: Bay Area
The Analyst will gather and analyze quantitative and qualitative data that will be used by Education Pioneers staff and leadership to inform strategy, assess progress against business goals, make business decisions, and improve day-to-day performance. Major areas of responsibility include:
Rupununi - Photo by Kati Ringer
I came across a great website one day for the Rupununi Learners. The organization is made up of two non-profit organizations – the Rupununi Learners Incorporated (RLI) and Rupununi Learners Foundation (RLF). RLI is a registered non-profit in Guyana, founded in 2007 and RLF is a registered non-profit in the USA that started in 2001. Together, these organizations come together to collaborate on environmental conservation, wildlife research, education, economic development and cultural preservation efforts in the southern region of Guyana.
Check out their great website, http://www.rupununilearners.org, to learn more about these two organizations and the wonderful programs they offer!
(via bbc.co.uk)
I first met Otisha, a tall Afro-Guyanese transvestite prostitute in 2003 when I reported on HIV and Aids in Guyana and Barbados.
 Otisha says Aids awareness has increased in Guyana
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Back then, the Caribbean had the second highest rate of infection in the world.
The prevalence among female sex workers in Guyana was 27% and 21% for men who have sex with men.
Five years later, Otisha is still a commercial sex worker and business is booming for him.
“I go with lots of clients,” said Otisha, who has himself managed to avoid contracting HIV.
When I last visited, men were paying extra money to have unprotected sex.
“You do have some men who pay that type of money to have sex but I’m not going to have unprotected sex,” said Otisha.
Raising awareness
Government support for HIV and Aids sufferers has improved dramatically in Guyana in the past five years.
“They are promoting more Aids programmes on national television and promoting the use of condoms,” said Otisha.
 Education is the key to bringing down infection rates
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Since the World Bank came on board in 2004 and after President George W Bush’s Aids initiative, more money has been made available to promote awareness and education.
Dr Shanti Singh, who heads the country’s national Aids programme, feels that this has had an impact on the number of cases.
“In 2003/2004 our prevalence was approximately 2.4%.
“At the end of 2006 we conducted another survey, so we estimate in Guyana, right now our prevalence is about 1.55%,” said Dr Singh.
The infection rate among female sex workers has also dropped significantly in recent years.
“There has been a lot of work going on to educate the general public – mass media campaigns, a lot of print media and education material,” added Dr Singh
Getting support
According to the National Aids Programme, about 5,000 people are now in a free treatment and care programme.
I visited a clinic where I met a young policewoman who had contracted HIV from her husband.
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 I don’t know how to use a condom  Isabella
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“I thought I was going to die, I shut down my bank account and I made wills concerning my children,” she said.
When she first came to the clinic, she had lost all hope but the support she received changed her mind.
“I want to live, so that’s why I dress and look fancy and you can’t even tell that I have HIV,” she said.
However, one of the biggest obstacles for the Guyanese government is how to stop further infections.
HIV is still the leading cause of death among people between the ages of 20 and 49, and the infection rate among commercial sex workers and men who have sex with men remains extremely high.
Isabella, an 18-year-old orphan, had to prostitute herself to put a roof over her head.
She has been having regular unprotected sex since started working a year ago.
“I don’t know how to use a condom,” said Isabella.
She has never been tested and estimates that she has had unprotected sex with around 50 men.
Multiple partners
Barbados is renowned for being socially conservative and religious but when it comes to sex, it is a different matter.
“In the Caribbean the infection rate is 1.2% and here in Barbados it’s around 1.8%,” said Dr Carol Jacobs, who is the head of the National Aids Commission.
“We are relatively high but unless we can cut the number of new cases, we still have a big challenge on our hands,” she said.
Woman between the ages of 15 and 29 have the highest infection rates, as a result of having multiple partners as well as anal sex.
“We are just embarking on our five-year strategic plan, paying a lot of emphasis to treatment and prevention, with behaviour change and communication in particular,” said Dr Jacobs.
“It is about men in particular having multiple partners and I think the young women think if you can do it, so can we,” said Dr Jacobs.
Education
The National Aids Commission has just launched what it calls a “Champions Programme,” where they are getting artists and musicians to promote the safe sex message to young people.
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The good news is that we have been able to reduce HIV/Aids mortality by over 70% Corey Lane
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However, many of the people engaging in risky sexual behaviour are the parents themselves.
Corey Lane, from the Aids commission, feels that adults think young people do not have sex.
“A lot of teachers don’t feel comfortable talking to these children about sex, they feel that they are too young to know about it,” said Mr Lane.
“We have proven in surveys that primary school children are engaging in sex as early as nine. However, the good news is that we have been able to reduce HIV/Aids mortality by over 70%.”
According to Mr Lane, Barbados has also been able to reduce the incidence of new cases as every major public place now offers testing.
Five years ago, when I reported on HIV and Aids in the Caribbean, the big issue was stigma and discrimination
Now, I’ve seen how the quality of life for people living with the disease in Guyana and Barbados has improved dramatically.
People are living longer and huge strides have been made in terms of treatment and care in less than a decade.
Sadly one thing that hasn’t changed is the infection rate, which is only surpassed by the far higher figures in sub-Saharan Africa.
World AIDS Day (December 1st) is marked as a day in which people and organizations from around the world share information about and bring attention to HIV and AIDS. 2008 marks the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day. For information on World AIDS Day… http://www.worldaidscampaign.org/static/en/
News about World AIDS Day in Guyana (http://www.kaieteurnews.com/?p=16607)
World AIDS Day observance
…NAC calls for leadership at all levels to tackle the virus
In observance of World AIDS Day (WAD) today, the National AIDS Committee (NAC) is calling on Guyanese to reflect on those who live with and have died from HIV/AIDS.
The committee is also urging a more democratic understanding of the concept of ‘leadership,’ as it requires everyone to assume leadership roles, which in turn assumes complete and transparent access to all necessary information.
In a press release, the NAC noted that, “a further priority in the area of HIV/AIDS leadership in Guyana must be creating an enabling environment for persons living with HIV/AIDS to assume leadership roles.”
NAC stated that everyone has leadership tasks to play in the fight against HIV/AIDS, beginning with persons taking a lead in their own lives, and always protecting their health.
“Leadership at national and international government levels is primarily a task of ensuring the priority of HIV is sustained and resources not diverted to competing needs. Leadership does not require the Government to be necessarily the major implementer of all HIV responses.”
NAC is of the view that the most fundamental trait of leadership is to take initiatives without waiting to be told.
However, in the Guyanese context, they noted, there is a lack of access to information, which is a major factor working against such initiatives.
It was noted that, due to the stigma attached to the virus, the community of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) in Guyana is generally invisible, and as such no well-known HIV-positive person in Guyana would dare risk publicizing their status.
“The stigma associated with the virus remains as virulent as the virus itself. How, in such circumstances, can persons living with HIV/AIDS assume leadership roles? NAC questioned.
NAC is also of the view that leadership in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Guyana — whether religious, political, medical or social — has consistently failed to address the problem.
“Combating the virus has always been firmly in the hands of uninfected people. At the same time, the success of the NAC-sponsored survey on stigma and discrimination, carried out extensively by PLWHAs in May of this year, demolished arguments that the PLWHA capacity for involvement is not available.”
(via http://www.kaieteurnews.com)
Evidence has emerged that the gang controlled by Guyana’s most wanted man, Rondell ‘Fine Man’ Rawlins, consists mainly of teenage boys who fled from their homes in the village of Buxton.
Recent evidence has brought out that many of the members of the gang are no more than 17 years old. Dwayne Sancho, who was captured by the security forces on Monday in a trail near Ituni, is only 14 years old, while Otis Fiffee, called ‘Mud Up,’ who was killed during the initial raid two Fridays ago, and Robin Chung, called ‘Chung Boy’ were mere 17 and 16 years old respectively.
Initially, Fiffee’s age was stated as 21 years old; however, when this newspaper visited Buxton yesterday during his funeral, the age on his coffin was stated as 17. His parents had given the earlier age.
There is evidence that Rawlins and other senior members of his gang had initially recruited the teenagers as look-outs while the gang was hiding out in the village of Buxton.
After they were flushed out by the security forces, some of the young men, who were already a part of the gang, went with them.
The parents of these young men, during recent interviews, indicated that their children left their homes despite several pleas for them to refrain from the criminal activities.
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Eyewitnesses to the Bartica massacre had indicated that most of the gunmen were ‘young boys’.
But what could have led to these young men throwing their lives away to join a gang, knowing that the consequences invariably lead to certain death?
Many villagers are of the opinion that this is a result of constant Police harassment and profiling of the youths of Buxton. The young men became sympathizers with the gunmen…
read full at http://www.kaieteurnews.com/?p=1346
There is so much I learned from my years in Guyana, but the lesson which had it’s biggest impact on me – my life, my career – was that youth are absolutely vital to creating and sustaining positive change. Today I read an article from Starbroek News (online) that reminded me of this lesson:
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National Children’s Conference
Posted By Staff On November 16, 2008
Stop the violence, children say
It was only three words ? stop the violence ? but when 120 Guyanese youths raised their voices to say enough is enough and “we can’t take it any more” it played like a chorus blasting from the Convention Centre at the Ocean View Hotel where the National Children’s Confer-ence wrapped up after two full days of youth empowerment.
From the soft-spoken to the outspoken the youths assembled to say how tired they are of being neglected, physically abused, sexually molested, forced into early labour and left unprotected, among other things. They spoke directly to President Bharrat Jagdeo.
“Mr President, we need more social workers to investigate what is happening with us across the country, we need harsher penalties for child molesters, we are asking you to drop food prices and please, stop the violence!”
Rueshanna Boyce of St Rose’s High School captured their feelings in a gripping address on the opening day of the conference, which was organized by EveryChild Guyana in collaboration with Unicef and the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security.
“If you love us will you hurt us, will you keep us away from school? Will you abuse us and cause us hurts and pains and will you allow us to be victims of child labour? We are loitering on the streets; we are being physically or sexually abused by a stepfather, grandfather, grandmother and worse our own parents… it is obvious that these very adults who should be protecting us children, instead, protect the family’s image,” Boyce said.
Of major concern to the nation’s youths is their protection. The issue of child protection was a recurring one during the two-day national conference, which drew children from across the country. The children pointed to their parents and teachers as their immediate protectors, but singled out government and their communities as important factors in child protection.
In her address to the conference, Boyce said that children are expected to rise above waking up to violence in the homes, being cuffed, kicked and screamed at, even hearing that they are dunces and good for nothings, and still feel good about themselves. She said that while some put up with it, others leave and live on the streets. But more importantly, she said they are making poor choices.
Where are our mentors? Boyce asked the question as did a host of other children who found the courage to speak up during the conference after initial moments of silence. They unanimously agreed that it is right to first seek out mentors in the home and at school and in their communities.
They are also looking around for role models. The children hope they can find Guyanese with integrity, caring spirits, love in their hearts and intelligence to fill these positions. Their optimism is ripe and according to one child, “we need more role models other than mommy.”
Guyanese youths are also calling on the government to make additional provisions in the budget that will give them greater access to education, health care and social services. As they wrapped up the conference and started to present individual views, they called for a stronger education programme and more schools in the less fortunate areas.
“We need more schools in regions nine and ten and not just that, but also better programmes that will allow children there to have the best education,” one child said while onstage articulating what he and his group of peers wanted to see happen.
Even the police were considered. The children said they hope for a police force that is more responsive to them, and they would also like to see more honest police officers. They called on members of the Guyana Police Force to stop taking bribes and for them to investigate matters more thoroughly before making arrests. Though this evoked laughter among some adults in the room, the children noted that they were being very serious.
The conference was aimed at empowering children across the country to speak out on issues affecting them and to stand up as advocates for child protection. Some of the children Stabroek News spoke with are eager to go back into their villages and speak out on the issues.
Omattie Seaforth, County Director of EveryChild Guyana, had noted that the compelling factor for the children’s conference is the high incidence of violence and abuse that is perpetrated against children in the Guyanese society. She said that the idea behind the conference was that children would leave with a clear understanding of child protection issues and how to safeguard themselves.
Seaforth said she had hoped that the children would bring their dreams, hopes, fears, challenges and enthusiasm to the conference, in the spirit of bringing alive the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Human Services Minister Priya Manickchand, who spoke at the opening of the conference, re-affirmed her commitment to have legislation in place that protects the nation’s children. She said that children’s rights must be respected, but urged the youths to know what those rights are.
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http://www.stabroeknews.com/news/national-children%E2%80%99s-conference/
Wikipedia content is now available through BitTorrent -
Wikipedia school edition is an offline DVD version of Wikipedia by SOS Children’s Villages (a charity for orphans) filled with “checked content” from the user-edited online encyclopedia. The 2.9GB download is available only via BitTorrent, and to top it off, here’s a quote you don’t hear every day: “It helps our charity if you keep µTorrent running after your download is finished.”
