PRESS RELEASE
AFC HOLDS LISTENING & GROUNDING IN BARE ROOT, ECD.

The Alliance For Change (AFC) continued its Listening & Grounding Exercise on Saturday, February 15, when the Party took to Bare Root on the East Coast of Demerara.
The team led by Nigel Hughes and including members of the Party’s youth arm – Youth For Change (YFC), witnessed appalling levels of poverty. During interactions with the AFC team, residents shared their concerns. These included the village not having a health center, increasing drug use among adolescents, deplorable roads, poor drainage, high levels of unemployment and under-employment, no primary school, no playing field, a high level of school drop-out and low economic activity and opportunities.

It was shocking that in a country that boasts the highest economic growth and where the government boasts of creating the “Dubai of the Caribbean”, ordinary citizens are forced to live in dilapidated dwellings and unsanitary conditions.
The AFC Leader outlined some of the priority areas for when it gets into government and committed that a health center would be established in Bare Root. Additionally, the village would get a new nursery school and a primary school. The community would also be identified for a playing field and problems with drainage would be addressed. Hughes said, in order to ensure young Guyanese can access opportunities in Guyana’s oil and gas sector, a stipend should be provided for persons pursuing technical and vocational training.

One week before visiting Bare Root, the AFC walked through Leopold Street in Georgetown where they were shocked to see the living conditions of families including children. A few days after the walk through, the Alliance For Change provided food hampers for 25 families and work has since started to clear the blocked sewage system which is a breeding ground for mosquitoes and dangerous insects. Residents’ lives have been at risk for the longest while given these ills. Work to clear the sewage should be completed in the next couple of days.
The AFC will continue its Listening & Grounding Exercise across Guyana.
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Residents complain of bad roads as seen in the background
Sewage overflow in Leopold Street yard