By Admin1 (admin) on Saturday, July 07, 2001 - 3:22 pm: Edit Post |
Peace Corps Programs in Guyana
Peace Corps Programs in Guyana
Guyana is a tropical country on the northern shoulder of South America, 215,000 square kilometers in area, approximately the size of Great Britain or the combined size of the states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts. It is bordered by Venezuela, Brazil, Suriname and the Atlantic Ocean. Guyana has a population of approximately 700,000 people, largely confined to a narrow coastal strip where sugar and rice cultivation are concentrated and where the nation's capital, Georgetown, clusters at the mouth of the Demerara River.
Guyana has great potential for human resource development through the utilization of its vast, untapped interior regions. Elsewhere, the only sizable center of population is the bauxite town of Linden, sixty miles up-river from the capital. There is a great diversity of racial and ethnic groups in Guyana, with people of African descent constituting 35.6 percent of the population, people of East Indian descent 49.5 percent, and people of Portuguese, Chinese, Amerindian and mixed descent making up the remaining 15 percent. Three major river systems, the Demerara, the Berbice and the Essequibo, together with innumerable smaller rivers and creeks, drain this 'Land of Many Waters' and link its vast forested and savanna interior to the coast.
Volunteers provide community health education and youth development outreach in collaboration with relevant ministries and non-governmental organizations. They assist existing efforts to facilitate community involvement, train service providers, and introduce new training and teaching methodologies. Future endeavors in the Education/Community Development project will address a request from the Ministry of Education to enhance its computer-training for students and educators.