Friends & RPCVs of Guyana is a non-profit, service based organization dedicated to supporting education, health, social, economic, and environmental programs in Guyana through a network of RPCVs, Guyanese nationals, Guyanese-Americans, and all others concerned and interested in the Guyanese Community.

(via caribbeannetnews.com)

Heavy rainfall continues to create havoc in Guyana and the Minister of Education, Shaik Baksh, has issued a statement that his ministry will be forced to close 60 schools if the rain continues.

The Kaiteur News reported that the minister said he has received reports that dozens of schools are affected by floods due to the past two weeks of heavy rainfall, and he is looking carefully at the situation before he makes a decision.

Most of the schools affected are in the rural areas.

The Peace Corps wiki has posted Peace Corps departures by month as obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

This should be used as a guide only as:

• During those years a specific country/assignment may have moved to a different month to begin staging
• 2008 was partially available, up to September, but was not included as it would add more groups for the months for Jan - Sept and nothing for Oct - Dec.
• The percentages are based on historical data

(via portfolio.com)

Guyana has unveiled a $40 million bridge that connects the South American country to Venezuela.

The government anticipates the half-mile Berbice River Bridge will increase trade and tourism between the two countries. It also is expected to ease traffic headed east toward Suriname and French Guiana.

The bridge eliminates an up to three-hour wait for ferries that often break down during the 20-minute trip across the river.

Officials struggled for decades to finance the project. A group of private and public entities finally agreed to help last year.

We’re Marching! RPCVs to Take Part in the Inaugural Parade

Now is your chance to be a part of history! The Returned Peace Corps Community has been selected from among groups around the country to march in the Presidential Inaugural Parade on January 20, 2009.

A total of 200 marchers will carry flags and banners from every Peace Corps country.

Members of the National Peace Corps Association are encouraged to put your name into a lottery to be selected at random to march in the Parade.

Click here for complete details.

(via peacecorps.gov)

Peace Corps Director Ronald A. Tschetter today unveiled the V2 volunteerism initiative, with a Volunteerism Action Guide designed to support host country volunteerism overseas. The V2 Action Guide will help Peace Corps Volunteers motivate and inspire host country communities to engage in more service activities.

“In America, we have a wonderful culture of volunteerism and service to others, which is unique and should be shared,” said Director Tschetter. “Many heads of state have expressed to me a need for domestic volunteerism in their own countries, and I’m thrilled to announce the V2 volunteerism initiative. The Peace Corps is the gold standard for volunteerism, and we look forward to spreading this spirit of volunteerism to the communities where we currently serve.”

The V2 Action Guide is designed to help Volunteers and their partners develop service learning projects in their local communities. The guide will also assist Volunteers in creating a customized volunteer action guide for a local group that can then be translated into a local language for community use. This guide is designed to be used in tandem with many other existing resources Peace Corps makes available to Volunteers in-country.

Many Peace Corps Volunteers are already promoting volunteerism and service in their communities, particularly with young people. Peace Corps Volunteers reach over 1.6 million young people every year, and in most of the countries where Volunteers serve, over 50 percent of the population is under 25. The V2 Action Guide will provide Volunteers with more tools to assist local partners in building relevant skills as they serve others in their own communities.

(via stabroeknews.com/news)

Participants at a ‘Forum for Men’ last Thursday were urged to aggressively pursue initiatives that will stamp out gender-based violence in the Guyanese society.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security, Trevor Thomas said that “Our challenge is not to passively condemn but to aggressively pursue initiatives that can positively respond and stamp out gender-based violence in our society.”

As part of the observation of “National Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women” the ministry and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) held a ‘Forum for Men’ last Thursday which was aimed at giving men the opportunity to do “some serious introspection,” the Government Infor-mation Agency (GINA) reported.

Thomas pointed out that, “Gender-based violence is real and men need to do something about it… most men condemn domestic violence but we cannot any longer allow condemnation to be just a personal view… I would like to see some form of resolution that does not merely articulate our condemnation of violence but one that can form a catalyst for the way forward that we as men can aggressively respond to domestic violence.”

The ministry has been conducting consultations throughout the country and working with institutions and groups to see how domestic violence can be eradicated from society.

http://www.morepeacecorps.org/home

http://feeds.feedburner.com/npnews

The other day I ran across AllTop.com’s nonprofit page section, which is a huge list of popular nonprofit blogs, and thought it would be fun to find the most interesting stories from those feeds.

So, I extracted the rss feeds from most of the sites listed (not all, some of the links were dead) and imported that list into PostRank. PostRank looks at statistical information related to each story, like comments made on a post, popularity of the website, how many times a story has been Dugg, and using that info, a rank between 1 and 10 is given to each blog post.

I decided that I only wanted to see stories with a high ranking, around 8 - 10 and was given a new rss feed of all the stories with a high ranking.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/npnews

I then imported that rss feed into Feedburner, which allows me to keep track of how many people are checking out the feed as well as add new features to the feed that aren’t normally included, e.g., FeedFlares, which let people share a story on Digg or Reddit or email it to a friend.

So, below you’ll find the consolidated feed of relevant and popular updated nonprofit news from 40+ websites. Enjoy!

http://feeds.feedburner.com/npnews

(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

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

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.

I don’t know how to use a condom Isabella

“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.

The good news is that we have been able to reduce HIV/Aids mortality by over 70% Corey Lane

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.