34 women graduate from First Lady’s Care for the Elderly Workshop

(Ministry of the Presidency) Thirty-four women were, on Friday afternoon, certified as professional care givers through First Lady, Mrs. Sandra Granger’s Care for the Elderly Workshop. The women were feted at a graduation ceremony held in the Baridi Benab, State House.

In her feature address at the ceremony, Social Worker, Ms. Hazel Hannibal, encouraged the graduates to continue to augment their education with more training.

“This type of job calls for persons who are kind and loving and patient and long suffering, again, you can only give what you have … cultivate these precious attributes if you don’t have them,” she said.

The women, who were drawn from the Central Islamic Organisation of Guyana (CIOG), Women Across Differences (WAD), St. John’s Bosco Orphanage, the Buxton Day-Care Centre and the Lusignan Learning Centre said they were grateful for the opportunity to participate in the course.

“My colleagues and I are grateful for the training in a variety of areas, to respond to situations like physical injuries, bleeding, emergencies, neck and spinal injuries, shock, just to name a few… We have gained a lot of knowledge from these trainings,” graduate Ms. Bhankumarie Nankoo said.

The workshop comprises two weeks of theoretical training, with one day in each week designated for internship and one week of first aid training, conducted by the Guyana Red Cross Society (GRCS).

Minister and Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Social Protection, Mr. Keith Scott and Mr. Adrian Ramratan, respectively; Chief Executive Officer of the Board of Industrial Training, Mr. Richard Maughn; Director General of the GRCS, Ms. Dorothy Fraser, and Coordinator, Women Across Differences, Mrs. Clonel Samuels-Boston also attended the ceremony.