Gov­ern­ment is cur­rent­ly in talks with sev­er­al big com­pa­nies in the en­er­gy sec­tor to train some 500 Guyanese women to op­er­ate heavy-du­ty ma­chines in the min­ing and oil and gas sec­tors.

Pres­i­dent Ir­faan Ali said the fu­ture un­der­tak­ing would al­low the par­tic­i­pants to earn an av­er­age salary of GUY$350,000 (One Guyana dol­lar = US$0.0047)

“The gov­ern­ment is go­ing to in­vest in en­sur­ing that you are cer­ti­fied and we are go­ing to part­ner with the pri­vate sec­tor, so you move smooth­ly from cer­ti­fi­ca­tion to em­ploy­ment. These are the com­mit­ments that I’m mak­ing to you,” he said on Wednes­day evening as he ad­dressed a large gath­er­ing of women who joined him and First La­dy Arya Ali for din­ner at State House in recog­ni­tion of In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Day 2023.

Not­ing that women are spread across every sec­tor in­clud­ing the ju­di­cia­ry, avi­a­tion, agri­cul­ture, man­u­fac­tur­ing, health care and ed­u­ca­tion, Pres­i­dent Ali said the suc­cess­es of Guyanese women are sig­nif­i­cant and trans­for­ma­tive.

Some 72.6 per cent of stu­dents cur­rent­ly study­ing through the Guyana On­line Acad­e­my of Learn­ing (GOAL) Schol­ar­ship Pro­gramme are women, while an­oth­er 57 per cent of per­sons ben­e­fit­ting from schol­ar­ships through the Min­istry of Pub­lic Ser­vice are al­so women.

An­oth­er 69 per cent of those trained in the pub­lic ser­vice are women. Eighty per cent of the to­tal in­take in the ed­u­ca­tion min­istry’s tech­ni­cal pro­grammes are al­so women.

At the Uni­ver­si­ty of Guyana (UG), 70 per cent of the to­tal stu­dent pop­u­la­tion are women. Im­por­tant­ly, the with­draw­al rate at UG among fe­males is at 0.4 per cent and is among the low­est in the re­gion.

“What that tells you, is that not on­ly are women en­rolled, women have the stay­ing pow­er, they have the fight­ing pow­er, they have the sac­ri­fice pow­er and they have the abil­i­ty to fin­ish what they start. And this is some­thing that men must learn,” Pres­i­dent Ali un­der­scored.

Mean­while, in the health care sys­tem, 60 per cent of the doc­tors and 98 per cent of the nurs­es are women, the pres­i­dent stat­ed.

An­oth­er 69 per cent of those trained in the pub­lic ser­vice are women. Eighty per cent of the to­tal in­take in the ed­u­ca­tion min­istry’s tech­ni­cal pro­grammes are al­so women.

At the Uni­ver­si­ty of Guyana (UG), 70 per cent of the to­tal stu­dent pop­u­la­tion are women. Im­por­tant­ly, the with­draw­al rate at UG among fe­males is at 0.4 per cent and is among the low­est in the re­gion.

“What that tells you, is that not on­ly are women en­rolled, women have the stay­ing pow­er, they have the fight­ing pow­er, they have the sac­ri­fice pow­er and they have the abil­i­ty to fin­ish what they start. And this is some­thing that men must learn,” Pres­i­dent Ali un­der­scored.

Mean­while, in the health care sys­tem, 60 per cent of the doc­tors and 98 per cent of the nurs­es are women, the pres­i­dent stat­ed.

Ali said the ad­min­is­tra­tion will con­tin­ue to work and pro­vide the nec­es­sary re­sources to lessen the bur­den on the na­tion’s women.

He added that his gov­ern­ment has tak­en a ze­ro-tol­er­ance pol­i­cy ap­proach to vi­o­lence against women.

Ac­knowl­edg­ing that the so­cial is­sue con­tin­ues to be a “dev­il” plagu­ing the na­tion, the pres­i­dent said cit­i­zens must stand col­lec­tive­ly to com­bat the scourge.

“How many moth­ers will cov­er for their sons? How many wives will cov­er for their hus­bands? …. The root cause is our si­lence; the root cause is our col­lec­tive guilt…not to stand strong and de­fin­i­tive­ly against vi­o­lence against women. If we do that, we can get rid of this mon­ster and dev­il from the so­ci­ety,” Pres­i­dent Ali said.

CMC/ed/2023