After living her dreams Anita Lynette Baird sets sights on new possibilities

Transitioning from media From 4A

one liked working the early morning shift and I told them to give it to me because I wanted to go to UG during the day. I had to be in the studio for 3.15 am to be ready for the line-up theme at 3.30 am before the station signed on at 4.00 am. For two years I did that. When UG closed we used to alternate the morning shift so I would then get a break.” During that time she got married and gave birth to a daughter. She took a break after obtaining the diploma

When vacancies for a producer at GBC were advertised, she applied for a position. “They gave me no special treatment although I was working there. It was not easy going over to the newsroom.” She did a number of beats but specialized in crime reporting.

She recalled returning to Guyana from the US on February 2002 and joining GBC’s mobile team at Church and Camp Street to cover the Mashramani Day Parade when they heard of a jail break and shooting at the Camp Street prisons. “Prison warden Roxanne Winfield was shot in the head and the eye and we visited her at the hospital. Working with state media had some privileges at government and state entities. I was close to the minister and I was able to go through some of the barriers others from the private media could not go through.”

From then on Baird had it busy covering crime. “It was hot then. Dale Moore and the guys were very busy. Fires were regular, buildings burnt down, and most times these things happened at nights.”

When American diplomat Stephen Lesniak was kidnapped in April, 2003, she said, “I went to the house where he was kept. It had nothing inside but a bench. People in the community knew where he was but nobody said anything. We saw when the police took him out very quickly and we followed. I couldn’t move with GBC. I had to move with Stabroek News because as long as they knew I was from the state media I was not allowed to enter certain areas like the gully in Buxton, the hideout of Sean Brown, Andrew Douglas and gang.”

When Superintendent Leon Fraser of the Guyana Police Force was killed, the police was not releasing information. “We went to the Commissioner of Police office to find out what we could. The police vehicles were lining up to go up the Linden-Soesdyke Highway and we decided to follow them. I was in Enrico Woolford’s car. We ended up in Yarrowkabra. All we saw was a piece of stick and a blue tarpaulin tied on a stick where the police said Fraser was killed. We saw no blood. Apparently the police were told to take us there to mislead us. We wrote what we saw until the police sent their official release.”

Baird stayed with GBC until 2006 when the company was incorporated with the National Communications Network (NCN) and the radio station moved from High Street in downtown Georgetown to Homestretch Avenue, uptown. Her job became redundant and she reapplied and was rehired as a radio journalist to cover crime.

“I had gotten to know almost everyone in the security system and they trusted me because I never named my sources. I even got into some trouble for reporting, based on authentic sources, a watered down version on the ritual the GDF commissioned officers had gone through after a passing out parade. One officer was beaten badly and hospitalised. Another media house heard about the story and sought the government spokesman for a comment and he persuaded them not to carry the story. The government spokesman heard from that media house that GBC carried the story. I was summoned to Office of the President (OP) the next day. I called Adam Harris, then president for the Guyana Press Association and a lawyer who advised me not to go and not to disclose my source under any condition. The lawyer said if they asked me to write anything to let them write to her. The spokesman then called GBC’s human resources department to put pressure on me to go to OP. I stood my ground, telling them even if I had to go to jail I would not disclose my source. It was left like that.”

At this time, she had started the bachelor’s in communications degree and could not get time off to attend classes during the day. There were times she had to cover the courts and could not attend classes. “I made friends with the police and they were sympathetic to my cause. I attend classes and went to the police station after classes where they gave me the information I needed. The system made me a good problem solver because when they put obstacles in my way I had to find solutions.”

At NCN senior staffers distributed PPP party application forms and had to attend party group meetings at Freedom House. “I didn’t want any party thing or [to] become involved in party politics. Because of that I used to feel pressured. I had enough sense to stay quiet.”

After she found it almost impossible to continue working in the state media, she applied and got through to work at the National AIDS Programme Secretariat (NAPS) as a researcher/writer in January 2007.

While working at NAPS she realized that as much as they wanted someone with a communication degree they needed someone with a good knowledge of social work. When she was reading for the degree in communication, she had done social work as a minor.

“That made me go back to UG to complete the degree in social work. Apart from

Anita Baird, a Lion and an animal lover

researcher/writer I was the coordinator for education, information and communications. It was a good experience. We did brochures, newsletters and awareness programmes on abstention, faithfulness and condomising among other topical issues on sexual awareness including the training of peer educators.”

However as funding reduced, salaries were slashed and not paid in time, Baird saw a vacancy for a communications officer at the Bank of Guyana (BoG). She applied, did the interview in December 2013 and joined the staff on January 2, 2014. She is now BoG’s head of communications.

“Before, I knew nothing about money apart from spending it. Now I am responsible for counterfeit detection training with members of the public, including banks, cambios and pump attendants, among others”.

The BoG introduced her to the Royal Toastmasters Club, for which she is now vice president, public relations.

Outside of work, Baird, a staunch Catholic and a reader at Brickdam Cathedral says, “I am a fun person and I like helping people.”

She joined the Lions Club of Georgetown to help the less fortunate. “This helping thing did not come overnight. We grew up seeing our parents helping big people and accommodating children from the riverain areas to attend school at North West Secondary. Some children from Wauna stayed at us during the week for school and went home on weekends.”

Now, Baird, currently the second vice president of the Guyana Association of Professional Social Workers, wants to do a master’s degree in social work and later to give advice on the areas she has mastered.