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The continued expansion of the “Adopt-an-Orphanage” programme offers a compelling example of how collaboration between the public and private sectors can strengthen social protection and improve the lives of vulnerable children. As the initiative enters its fifth phase, support for 11 children’s homes across Guyana shows a growing recognition that the welfare of children in institutional care must remain a priority supported by sustained partnerships.
Children’s homes perform a critical function within the country’s social protection framework, as they provide shelter, education, healthcare, guidance, and emotional support to children whose circumstances require temporary or long-term care outside of their family environment. The responsibility carried by these institutions extends well beyond providing accommodation, as their role is to create stability, security and opportunities for children during some of the most challenging periods of their lives.
That responsibility, however, comes with significant financial demands; utilities, maintenance, food, transportation, educational supplies, healthcare, and staffing represent constant expenses that can strain already limited resources. Every dollar directed towards electricity, water or communication services is a dollar unavailable for educational enrichment, counselling, recreational programmes or developmental opportunities.
The value of the Adopt-an-Orphanage Programme lies precisely in addressing this challenge. By removing part of the operational burden through corporate sponsorship of essential utilities and other recurring expenses, the initiative enables administrators to redirect scarce resources towards programmes that directly enhance the quality of care provided to children. Such an approach recognises that strengthening institutions is often the most effective way of improving outcomes for those they serve.
Equally significant is its expansion to include healthcare services, dental care, eye examinations, counselling, educational support and recreational activities, which reflects an understanding of child development. Modern child welfare cannot be measured solely by whether basic needs are met. Healthy emotional development, educational achievement, access to healthcare and opportunities for recreation are all essential components of a nurturing environment.
Children living in institutional care deserve experiences that promote confidence, belonging and personal growth. Activities that encourage learning, creativity, social interaction and recreation are not luxuries but important investments in emotional well-being and healthy development. Such opportunities help create positive childhood experiences that contribute to resilience and long-term success.
The programme also helps challenge long-standing misconceptions surrounding children living in care homes. Institutional care is often associated exclusively with orphanhood, yet the reality is considerably more complex. Many children enter residential care because families face circumstances that temporarily or permanently prevent them from providing adequate support. Poverty, illness, abuse, neglect or other social challenges may all contribute to such placements. Understanding these realities encourages greater compassion while reducing the stigma that can sometimes accompany institutional care.
Another noteworthy aspect of the initiative is the growing participation of the private sector. Corporate social responsibility is most meaningful when it moves beyond symbolic donations to sustained partnerships that address identifiable needs. Supporting operational costs may not attract widespread public attention, but it delivers measurable benefits by ensuring that essential services remain uninterrupted throughout the year.
This model of partnership also demonstrates that addressing social challenges cannot rest solely with Government agencies or charitable organisations. Businesses possess resources, expertise and organisational capacity that can complement public programmes and strengthen community institutions. When these sectors work together around clearly defined objectives, the results are often more sustainable and far-reaching than isolated interventions.
Importantly, the consistency of the initiative deserves recognition, as maintaining support across multiple phases provides children’s homes with greater certainty when planning budgets and delivering services. Long-term commitments are particularly valuable for institutions responsible for children, as continuity directly influences the stability and quality of care they can provide.
The programme’s continued growth may also encourage broader participation from additional corporate entities and philanthropic organisations. As more businesses recognise the tangible impact of targeted investments in child welfare, opportunities exist to expand support in areas such as educational technology, vocational training, mentorship, nutrition and mental health services. Such partnerships could further strengthen the developmental pathways available to children preparing for independent adulthood.
Children in institutional care is one of the country’s most vulnerable populations, but vulnerability should never determine destiny. With stable institutions, committed carers and sustained partnerships, these children can be provided with the security, opportunities and encouragement necessary to realise their full potential.
The continued commitment demonstrated through the Adopt-an-Orphanage programme illustrates how practical collaboration can produce meaningful social outcomes.

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The Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) on Wednesday announced that it will begin the calibration of approximately 250 tint meters and 12 sound level meters used by the Guyana Police Force (GPF) beginning July 13 as part of efforts to ensure the accuracy and reliability of traffic enforcement equipment.
The exercise will take place at GNBS Head Office in Sophia, Georgetown, and is aimed at improving the quality and reliability of services provided to members of the public by ensuring that tint meters used by the GPF’s Traffic Department are accurately calibrated to support effective traffic enforcement and successful prosecution in court.
Speaking at the event, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the GNBS, Trevor Bassoo, explained that this move will greatly assist enforcement of several road regulations.
“These services, as you’re aware, will support enforcement in regulations, which include the motor vehicles and road traffic regulations of 2026, which were recently passed and published in the Official Gazette in January of 2026, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency noise regulation.”
Bassoo explained that the initiative forms part of a wider national programme that the Government plans to roll out countrywide. He noted that the devices are designed to monitor and measure noise levels, particularly in areas where entertainment establishments operate, in support of efforts to address excessive noise pollution.

“GNBS here; we’re playing our role to ensure that that plan is realised by verifying the sound level meters,” Bassoo said.
Meanwhile, Traffic Chief and Assistant Commissioner of Police Mahendra Singh described the initiative as a success story that continues to benefit the public through the partnership between the Guyana Police Force and the GNBS.
He explained that the tint meters have been in use for several months and have already undergone calibration. Singh noted that the core services provided by the GNBS contribute significantly to the Police Force’s operational capacity, with officers receiving training on the proper use of the equipment while the devices undergo regular testing and calibration.
“This meter is in our country; it has been in use for the past several months, and it has already been subject to calibration.  All of the core services provided by the GNBS tie right into our motors and capacity building.  All people are trained by the GNBS; the equipment is tested and calibrated. Each cycle, which lasts for six months or a year, as the case may be, is duly observed.”
Singh said the continued collaboration between the GPF and the GNBS is intended to strengthen traffic enforcement while ensuring that the equipment is used correctly and that members of the public can have confidence in the results.
“We ensure that each day as we deploy this equipment, it is used for the intended purpose by forces who are authorised by the Commission of Police in keeping with the law.  And so, everything that we can tell you about the success story which is continuing, where the Bureau of Standards is partnering with us, is only to ensure that all these agencies do something that will ensure that the public benefits.”
Meanwhile, Head of Air, Noise and Radiation for technical services at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Michelle Nurse, highlighted the sound systems, noting that they will help ensure downtime is reduced.
“So, the introduction of this service will help ensure that sound level meters used by the EPA, by the Guyana Police Force, by consultants and other stakeholders and private operators are accurate and that they’re dependable.  This local service will also ensure that downtime is reduced.  That at least we can always organise to have verified equipment available for our use,” she stated.
Back in April, Attorney General Anil Nandlall had stated that the Government will be moving to strengthen enforcement of existing noise-nuisance laws with plans to expand the role of the GPF in ensuring compliance.
He had further stated that there is a comprehensive regulatory framework in the Environmental Protection Act regulations that were enacted since 2000, but the problem was the enforcement aspect.
As a result, Nandlall related, the Government intends to integrate these provisions into the broader criminal-law framework to allow for greater enforcement support.
This move, he added, does not introduce new penalties but rather reinforces existing ones already outlined in the EPA regulations. These include fines ranging from $300,000 to $750,000, as well as the possibility of imprisonment for up to one year upon conviction.

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They say “time longer than twine”, and at long last – almost six years after their horrific murders and mutilation of their bodies on September 5, 2020 – justice has been delivered for those two Henry cousins – Isaiah, 16, and Joel, 19, from West Berbice. A jury of 12, after considering the eyewitness account of Akash Singh along with the evidence supported by medical findings, Police testimony, and other witnesses, pronounced Sancharra and Gopaul, who’d been charged, guilty of the murders. They were sentenced to life imprisonment – with no possibility of parole before 35 years!!
It turns out that Sancharra and Gopaul – along with Akash – had been cultivating marijuana in the Coton Tree backlands, but one day discovered several fields had been trampled and destroyed. They encountered the Henry cousins in the vicinity and accused them of committing the vandalism!! One of them laughed, and the infuriated marijuana criminals turned on them and viciously hacked away at them with cutlasses, killing them on the spot. They then dragged the bodies away from the marijuana fields and dumped them on a dam – where they were discovered by Harish Singh, the 17-year-old grandson of the owner of the land on which Isaiah’s and Joel’s bodies had been found!!
And that’s when the local tragedy was transformed into a national one. The PNC under Granger had just lost the elections five months before, but refusing to accept the verdict of the people and the CCJ, Granger and Harmon ran down to West Berbice. The call for justice for the murdered Henry cousins was transformed to a call for “justice” against the PPP who’d “robbed” them! Granger then divined that the murders were politically motivated – which, as he well knew in Guyana, means that they were RACIALLY motivated!! He advised that the residents of the Henrys’ village should form “self-protection” units – and all hell broke loose!!
Several worked-up persons decided to take the law into their own hands and murdered Haresh Singh in the backdam. For good measure, they burnt his motorcycle, and it was the smoke from this conflagration that alerted relatives to investigate and discover his lifeless body. This was revenge, plain and simple… an eye for two eyes. And it has to be laid at the feet of Harmon and Granger!
Four persons were charged and remanded – including two relatives of the Henrys – but the matter still hasn’t gone to trial. And it is to this tragedy we must now turn our eyes – Harish Singh must also receive justice.
As for Granger and Harmon, they haven’t apologised for their incitement. However, they’ve been discarded on the wayside of history – and hopefully Opposition leaders will be less incendiary.

…vengeance
The demand that the Government renegotiate the Exxon contract for better terms, on its surface, shouldn’t be controversial, should it?? Who doesn’t want more money?? Even Musk – our first TRILLIONAIRE – keeps on pushing for more profits!! But neither of the two major parties – representing 95 per cent of our electorate – wanna renegotiate! What’s up?? Didn’t we put them there to do what’s best for us?? Could it be that keeping the status quo on the contract is “good for us”??
Your Eyewitness is reminded of a historical incident where Henry II was trenchantly criticised by his friend Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. All Henry wanted was for priests to be under civil – not church – law. Even after he compromised, Becket refused to act under the law. Henry muttered, “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?” and was overheard by some courtiers – who proceeded to kill Becket!!
The lesson?? Be careful what you ask for!! Exxon ain’t no Beckett – THEY have friends in very high places!!

…structural support
Your Eyewitness congratulates the Government for not falling for the opposition’s race-baiting by keeping on handing out those rice-subsidy cheques to rice farmers!! Our future lies in agriculture, and it is the Government’s responsibility to make it viable.

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Champion riders Kevin Persaud and Matthew Vieira will fly the Golden Arrowhead this weekend in the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) Superbike Championships at the Guyana Grand Prix.
While the GT Challenge de las Americas will offer the in-car action, the Super Sport Bike and Super Stock Bike races are expected to add an extra layer of excitement to the track.
Days away from competition, both Persaud and Vieira are approaching their races with optimism, despite their respective challenges.
Persaud told the Guyana Times Sport, “I’m going into it with positive energy. Not a lot of seat time, but not for any of us; we didn’t have no seat time at all on the new surface, but all of us basically started at zero, so I do have an advantage.”
“I’m really excited, actually, to be a part of history. I’m very proud that our local track in Guyana here could look like this right now. It has a bit of a foreign look, and I love that for Guyana,” Vieira remarked.
Vieira later divulged to this publication, “I’m heading into this weekend at a disadvantage because I sold my current bike that I was racing here, and I brought in a totally new bike with a different engine configuration and different chassis; because of limited time, I haven’t practised as yet on the track. So, we’re going into this weekend gambling.”
A common concern for both riders is the “green” South Dakota surface which has recently been re-laid, a factor that will take some expert navigation from the duo.
“The track is a lot smoother, but because of the new asphalt on the track, you don’t really have no grip on the track, so hopefully the cars will be doing some driving and laying down some rubber on the track. So, when the motor bikes go on the track, we’ll be getting some grip,” Persaud shared.
Vieira shared similar sentiments, stating, “For this weekend, I think there’ll be a lot more of a mental challenge for me because I know the asphalt is very green with no rubber; it has no grip. So, I need to pick and choose wisely how hard I ride and probably just try to take it calm.”
However, both bikers remain unfazed and ready to face up to the star-studded international grid.
Vieira explained, “The competition is really stiff; we have some of the champions from Panama coming, we have riders from the UK coming, Dan Lindfoot, and also we have Cooper, who was a Stock British Superbike 1000 champion as well. So, it’ll be a stacked grid.”
“We have the locals as well, Kevin, Nicholas, and Allen; these guys are quick. So, let’s see what happens; can’t wait,” Vieira added.
On the other hand, Persaud noted, “I think I’m the lone Guyanese representative in that category, so it will be big for me and also for Team Guyana.”
The GT Challenge de las Americas will take over the South Dakota Circuit at Timehri this weekend. On Saturday, July 11, qualifying begins, while on Sunday, July 12, the races will take centre stage. Tickets for the qualifying day are set at $4000, while race-day tickets are going for $9000.
Patrons can pick up their tickets at Lyft Gym locations countrywide or at the Guyana Motor Racing and Sports Club (GMR&SC) office at Thomaslands and Albert Street.

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