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Residents in far-flung regions of Guyana now have better access to psychiatric care, thanks to the opening of 87 new telemedicine centres in Regions 1, 7, 8, 9, and 10.

The Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, announced this initiative on Wednesday. It marks a significant step forward in making mental health services more accessible to remote communities.

Through the telemedicine system, psychiatrists based in Georgetown will be able to reach out to individuals in these regions, providing essential support and psychiatric help. If further investigation or specialised care is required, patients can be brought to facilities in the city for additional treatment.

Guyana’s mental health services have long faced challenges, with the country currently having less than one psychiatrist per 100,000 people—well below the World Health Organisation’s recommended ratio. This new initiative aims to bridge the gap in access to mental health care and improve the quality of services for individuals in remote areas.

The announcement follows the Ministry of Health’s broader efforts to reform the country’s mental health care system. In September last year, the ministry revealed plans to downsize and eventually close the National Psychiatric Hospital (NPH) in Berbice, Region Six.

This move is part of a strategy to decentralise services and integrate people with severe mental illnesses back into their communities, where they can receive care close to home.

As outlined in the ‘Guyana National Mental Health and Suicide Plan,’ the focus is on reducing stigma and human rights violations by moving away from institutionalisation and towards community-based care. The new approach aims to ensure that individuals with mental health conditions are treated with dignity and are able to reintegrate into society, while also improving access to services.

While progress was slow under the previous National Mental Health Plan, which sought to reduce the capacity of the NPH by 50%, the new plan brings a fresh focus on the needs of individuals and the decentralisation of services.

Currently, the NPH houses 195 patients, 160 of whom are long-term residents. The hospital employs 190 staff members, providing a one-to-one staff-to-patient ratio.

The revised mental health strategy includes a needs-based assessment to guide the distribution of resources across various regions, with the aim of establishing both inpatient and outpatient facilities to ensure that mental health care is available nationwide.

In addition, the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security will collaborate with the Ministry of Health to help reintegrate long-term patients with their families. For those without family support, the plan includes the establishment of community rehabilitation facilities.

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Following a recent post on social media about a schoolgirl who was sent home from the Yarrowkabra Secondary School because of her hairstyle, Minister of Education Priya Manickchand has reaffirmed that while schools in Guyana have rules regarding uniforms and attire, no child is to be sent home for their hairstyle.

“Nobody is to be sent home because of a hairstyle; parents can be asked to come in to have a discussion on it but nobody is to be sent home and we were very very clear on that,” Manickchand told the News Room on Wednesday.

Two years ago, following intensified discussions on outdated hair rules in schools, the Ministry of Education issued a memorandum stating that learners must not be sent home over perceived hairstyle breaches. Headteachers were reminded that their main priority is to ensure all learners are in school and being taught. The memorandum also warned that if a learner is deemed to have an inappropriate hairstyle, the school must invite his or her parent or guardian for a discussion regarding the perceived infraction.

“That circular has not changed,” Manickchand stated.

Further addressing the issue, the Education Minister stated that although schools have their own rules, the primary concern must be the education of the children.

“At the same time, we asked parents to be conscious of what the schools’ rules are because schools have to have rules. We haven’t gone to the place yet where we say and the country has not asked us to go there – where we say you can wear jeans and t-shirts and short pants to school,” Manickchand added.

She further noted that in light of learning loss, any breach of school rules should not result in sending children home.

“Schools have rules in Guyana. They have uniforms and they have rules surrounding different forms of attire, but we are saying that because of the learning loss, and because it is not in the interest of the children, that any breach of those rules should not see us sending children home,” the minister said.

In September 2023, Minister Manickchand made it clear that any person who sends a child home from school because of their hairstyle will face disciplinary action.

 

 

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In a significant move, the Ministry of Health in Guyana will soon commence administering influenza vaccines locally.

The announcement was made by Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony, during the consideration of the ministry’s budget on Wednesday.

These vaccines were not available in the public healthcare system for many years with people forced to seek them out overseas.

Dr. Anthony highlighted that the priority groups for the vaccination programme would initially include healthcare workers and the elderly, who are most at risk during flu season. The move comes as part of the government’s broader efforts to bolster public health and safeguard vulnerable populations against infectious diseases.

The introduction of the influenza vaccine was made possible by the recent development and enhancement of local laboratories in Guyana. The improved infrastructure in the country’s health sector now allows for better access to crucial medical services, such as vaccinations and diagnostic tests.

In his statement, Dr. Anthony also revealed that the country’s pathology lab had recently received accreditation under the ISO 17025 standard. This achievement is a testament to the lab’s commitment to maintaining high-quality standards for medical testing. The newly accredited facility now offers 14 different tests, providing more comprehensive diagnostic options for the public.

Dr. Anthony went on to commend the pathology lab, stating that it is now one of the most advanced in the Caribbean, with no comparable facilities in the region. This recognition places Guyana at the forefront of medical innovation and enhances the country’s ability to meet the healthcare needs of its population.

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(Reuters) – More than $13 million in U.S. funding for an international security force helping fight armed gangs in Haiti has been frozen under President Donald Trump’s 90-day pause on foreign aid, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Powerful gangs, armed with weapons largely trafficked from the United States, have united in the Caribbean country’s capital Port-au-Prince under a common alliance and now control most of the city and are expanding to nearby areas.

The Multinational Security Support mission, while approved by the U.N. Security Council, is not a United Nations operation and currently relies on voluntary contributions. The mission has so far made little progress toward helping Haiti restore order.

There are nearly 900 police and troops from Kenya, El Salvador, Jamaica, Guatemala and Belize. More than $110 million has been paid into a U.N. trust fund for the mission, more than half of it from Canada, according to U.N. data.

“The U.S. had committed $15 million to the trust fund; $1.7 million of that had already been spent, so $13.3 million is now frozen,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters. “We received an official notification from the U.S. asking for an immediate stop work order on their contribution.”

Just hours after taking office on Jan. 20, Trump ordered a 90-day pause so foreign aid contributions could be reviewed to see if they align with his “America First” foreign policy.

Korir Sing’oei, the principal secretary at Kenya’s foreign affairs ministry, said that despite the freeze, there was enough money in the trust fund to underwrite the mission through the end of September.

“We are very confident that any freeze would not impair our ability to be able to continue with this mission,” he told Reuters, adding he was hopeful the MSS would soon be converted to a U.N. peacekeeping mission, which would make it eligible for direct U.N. funding.

The Trump administration has not yet said whether it supports making the MSS a U.N. mission, and China and Russia have opposed doing so.

Trump said on Tuesday he thinks he will wind down the U.S. Agency for International Development, in what would be a dramatic overhaul of how the world’s largest single donor allocates foreign assistance.

Source: Reuters
Link to original story: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/us-freezes-funding-security-mission-tackling-haitis-gangs-2025-02-04/

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(Reuters) – The U.S. Postal Service said on Wednesday it would accept parcels from China and Hong Kong, in a U-turn after a suspension following President Donald Trump ending a trade provision used by retailers including Temu, Shein, and Amazon (AMZN.O), opens new tab to ship low-value packages duty-free to the U.S.

“The USPS and Customs and Border Protection are working closely together to implement an efficient collection mechanism for the new China tariffs to ensure the least disruption to package delivery,” it said in a statement.

The Trump administration imposed an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods and closed the “de minimis” exemption that allows U.S. shoppers to avoid paying tariffs for shipments below $800 from China.

USPS did not immediately comment on whether its temporary suspension had been tied to Trump’s order ending de minimis shipments from China, which was announced on Saturday and came into force from one minute past midnight on Tuesday.

“There has really been absolutely zero time for anyone to prepare for this,” said Maureen Cori, co-founder at New York-based consultancy Supply Chain Compliance. “What we really need is direction from the government on how to handle this without warning or notice.”

Currently, de minimis parcels are consolidated so that customs can clear hundreds or thousands of shipments at once, but they will now require individual clearances, significantly increasing the burden for postal services, brokers and customs agents, said Cori.

Source: Reuters

Link to original article: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-postal-service-suspends-incoming-packages-china-hong-kong-2025-02-05/

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About 70 years ago, Derrick Michael Callender dropped out of school when, for some reason, his parents could no longer afford to send him.

Determined to make a living, he thought he’d try the one thing that had always resonated with him—painting.

Perhaps being around relatives who were also artists was what truly sparked his interest in the field.

Known both on the local and international art scene, as ‘Calli’—short for his surname, Callender—the 82-year-old has his work displayed in banks, courts, and other prominent places in Guyana, as well as across the world.

Derrick Michael Callender, known as ‘Calli’ (Telesha Ramnarine/News Room/February 3, 2025)

Occupying a small space in the Tastee Dish Restaurant on David Street, Kitty, Calli shared his story with News Room on Monday.

A Kitty, Georgetown man all his life, he feels that there is a language only colours can speak.

For the first 30 years, when he started working with them, he described these as the ‘hustle’ years; but the next 40 that followed were the professional ones that led him to become one of the country’s renowned artists.

“I had to go and hustle. I had to go and do something; you gotta eat, you gotta earn your bread. I hustled with my painting until I became highly professional,” he shared.

Even so, Calli doesn’t find much pleasure in pomp and flair. He has always favoured simplicity, opting for small exhibitions whenever he travelled the world.

“I don’t really boast about it, or put on a big hat. No. I like it to be silent in imparting the aesthetic values that are paramount within the artist himself. I don’t want you to think I am this or I am that; no, I am not that. I am just a simple man who is seeing the world like everybody sees the world for themselves,” he expressed.

One of ‘Calli’s’ paintings inside Tastee Dish, on David Street, Kitty. (Telesha Ramnarine/News Room/February 3, 2025)

Also competent as a jazz-rock guitarist, Calli said that if we heard him play, we’d ask him to stop painting and focus on his music.

Despite limited vision, and also a limited education, Calli said he is grateful for the natural gifts he has been bestowed with.

“Some people are born great, some people achieve greatness, and others have greatness bestowed upon them. I think it has been bestowed upon me to do this. I never really picked up a brush and went to school or attended art classes with a teacher or sir,” he said.

“I never looked at it that way. I looked at it as, ‘Hey, I like this sunset; I will put a coconut tree in front of it,’” he added.

Calli doesn’t have much to this day materially; he remains a loner with no family, except for a twin brother in Brazil. But he firmly believes that everyone has their own sense of purpose.

“Most people, I find, don’t know themselves or what they’re doing here. That’s a bad thing to happen to a person. We all have a sense of purpose, and we have to do something about it to make it a reality.”

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In a harrowing incident that transpired late at night, a businessman Lakraj Singh and fisherman Virvash Ramdharry were robbed at gunpoint while dining at a Chinese restaurant at Number 67 Village, Corentyne Berbice.

During an interview with reporters, Singh said the ordeal unfolded around 22:30 hours on Monday.

At that time, he was at the counter selecting beverages for himself and his companion, Ramdharry, both residents of Number 64 Village.

Singh recalled hearing what sounded like a sudden leap, followed by the disconcerting sound of a gunshot discharged into the air.

Singh said a masked assailant then commanded him to lie flat on the ground, an order he complied with out of fear for his safety. While he remained on the floor, another shot was fired.

According to Singh, the armed intruder demanded that he remove his valuables, including three diamond rings, one gold chain, two gold finger rings and a gold hand band.

Singh disclosed that the total value of his stolen jewelry amounted to $4,595,000. The assailants also seized cash totaling $244,000 in Guyanese currency and $55,000 in U.S. dollars.

Ramdharry stated that while he was sitting at a table, one of the robbers ordered him to lie on the ground before taking his wristwatch and wallet, which contained $223,000.

According to information received, the bandits fired two shots as they fled.

The incident has been reported to the Springlands Police Station.

The restaurant where the robbery occurred commenced operations two weeks ago.

An investigation is ongoing.

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Ken Corsbie, the celebrated Guyanese actor, storyteller, and broadcaster, whose work helped shape theatre across the Caribbean, has died at the age of 94. He passed away on 3 February 2025 at his home in the United States, where he had been living with his wife, Elizabeth, for several years.

Corsbie, who was also a national basketball player and national track and field athlete, was born in Georgetown, and possessed a diverse heritage—his father was of Chinese, African, and Welsh descent, while his mother was Scottish and Portuguese. Throughout his illustrious career, he embodied the spirit of Caribbean unity by using his performances to highlight common cultural threads across the region.

In 1959, at the age of 29, Corsbie was instrumental in founding the Theatre Guild of Guyana. He quickly emerged as a dynamic presence on stage, acting in dozens of plays before earning a scholarship to study theatre in England. On his return, he joined the Guyana Broadcasting Service, where a series of radio documentaries called “Project One” took him across the Caribbean—an experience that deepened his passion for showcasing the region’s diversity in language, music, and folklore.

His landmark productions, including the one-man show “He-One” and later “Dem-Two” and “All-Ah-We”, offered a fresh approach to storytelling that blended West Indian poetry, folk tales, and song. Audiences embraced Corsbie’s animated, comedic style, and he soon became a fixture at festivals and theatrical events, performing extensively throughout the Caribbean.

In 1978, disillusioned by the political situation, Corsbie left Guyana for Barbados, where he continued to champion Caribbean theatre. He co-ordinated the Theatre Information Exchange, supporting local groups and mentoring emerging performers. Corsbie also wrote “Theatre in the Caribbean” (1983), one of the first books to document the region’s evolving theatrical traditions and presented the 13-part UNESCO-supported television series “Caribbean Eye”, which explored cultural and social themes across the islands.

Ken Corsbie/Facebook

Tributes to Corsbie’s life and legacy have poured in from across the Caribbean. Colleagues, friends, and fans alike remember him for his boundless energy, wit, and unwavering commitment to celebrating Caribbean identity. He leaves behind a remarkable body of work and a lasting influence on generations of performers, reminding audiences everywhere in a 1993 interview with Caribbean Beat, “The Caribbean can discover itself through theatre.”

Ken Corsbie is survived by his wife Elizabeth and a global community of admirers who found laughter, unity, and insight in his stories. His son, Len Corsbie, a creative icon and advertising genius in his own right, passed a few weeks before him in January 2025.

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See below the full release from Guyana’s Embassy in Qatar: 

Guyana’s Ambassador to Qatar, HE Safraaz Ahmad Shadood presented the most recent book authored by His Excellency President Dr. Irfaan Ali to His Excellency Dr. Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari, Minister of State and President of Qatar National Library.

Released at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford in England., President Ali’s book, “Achieving Global Food Security: The Caribbean Experience and Beyond” will now be available at Qatar National Library.

The Ambassador explained that His Excellency President Dr. Irfaan Ali penned his latest publication, against the backdrop of the effects of climate change along with COVID-19 and the concomitant effects of the disruption of global supply chains combined to reverse many of the gains made as a global community in improving food security.

The Ambassador explained that under the visionary leadership of His Excellency President Ali, Guyana led the Caribbean Region’s strategy to address food security. This strategy aims at increasing food production and productivity, ramping up agro-processing and value-added production, and promoting agri-business and intra-regional trade in food products.

His Excellency Dr. Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari, stated that President Ali’s book will add to the existing literature in the library that will be beneficial to researchers in Qatar. He further added that the strategic solutions offered by President Ali can be utilized by the State of Qatar given the similarity between the two countries.

His Excellency Dr. Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari assured that His Excellency President Ali’s book will be prominently placed in Qatar National Library.

It should be noted that this is the third book authored by His Excellency President Dr. Irfaan Ali that has now graced the shelves of Qatar National Library. In October, 2023 President Ali’s two previous works “From Crisis to Opportunity” and “Post Covid-19, Ukraine-Russia , Ticking Time Bomb for CARICOM” were presented to Qatar National Library.

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The St. Cuthbert’s Mission, also called Pakuri, has unveiled a yearly plan aimed at developing the Indigenous community.

Several projects have been identified in areas such as agriculture, tourism, education, security, business, electrification, and housing support.

The village’s Toshao, Alvoro Simon, in an interview with the News Room revealed that the development plans for the village will be funded with carbon credit payments from the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) 2030.

The community received $35 million in LCDS funding for two consecutive years.

“This year, with the allocation given to us from the LCDS funds, we are going to invest in agriculture, in tourism, in education, in security, electrification and expansion.

The village’s Toshao, Alvoro Simon

“We are going to have more of this funding directly impacting residents in terms of assisting with business startups and we are going to for the first this year, we are going to assist three people with providing a home for their families,” Simon revealed.

 

 

 

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Among the initiatives, business development is priority.

Toshao Simon explained that they will offer a $100,000 business grant to 10 people.

“Of course, there are criteria we will focus on in terms of vulnerable groups such as single parents. What we are focusing on is just people who would need an extra push that don’t have an income coming to their household,” Simon said.

An application process will shortlist recipients with the village’s LCDS committee in charge of monitoring and evaluating the progress of the business startups.

“A lot of persons have shops in the village and we are looking for something unique. We want other persons with different talents that are not getting the assistance they need—maybe like barbers. We don’t have any kind of barbershop, but we have people who can cut hair,” Simon explained.

ELECTRIFICATION

Electrification is another key component of the plan. Currently, a generator powers the central village, benefiting approximately 200 of the 300 households.

“What we are planning to do is to expand that project by giving persons out of the central area access to electricity,” Simon said. The electrification plan also includes the installation of solar street lights.

AGRICULTURE

Agriculture is set to take a central role in this year’s development plans.

Alvoro explained that while the Village Council will support small and private agricultural projects, a large-scale sustainable Village Farm is being developed.

The mill began construction last year and is set to enable production of cassava, cassareep, and farine.

“We want to focus mostly this year on a large-scale agricultural project that will be governed and run by the Village Council,” Simon stated.

Already, 10 acres have been identified for the farm; cassava and pineapples will be planted initially.

The village leader also revealed that a $10 million cassava mill will be operational within four weeks.

10 acres have been identified for the farm; cassava and pineapples will be planted initially.

The mill began construction last year and is set to enable production of cassava, cassareep, and farine.

“Our aim here is to ensure we have enough to sell outside of the village; we want to be able to be a hub,” Simon said.

CULTURE REVITALISATION

St. Cuthbert’s is an Arawak community but the language has been fading.

So, Simon and the Village Council have started a plan to integrate the language into the local school system.

“We are going to put it into the school system as a subject. We are working with the schools on this project where we have persons going and teaching the [language] in school, maybe twice a week.

“We are hoping that this will also trigger down; when the children go home with homework, their parents will get involved, and that way the parents learn the language as well,” the Toshao said.

TOURISM AND SPORTS

Tourism and sports development also form part of the yearly plan.

Simon revealed that the Village Council will invest in establishing an outdoor restaurant and acquire canoes for a traditional tourist experience. Upgrades will also be done to the guest house in the village.

A playground in St. Cuthbert’s Mission

Additionally, a $5 million investment is earmarked for sports, with developments to the two playgrounds in the community.

 

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