Women entrepreneurs network to launch flea market
New President of the Guyana Chapter of the Women Entrepreneurs Network of the Caribbean (WENC) Junette Stuart has told Stabroek Business that she will be seeking to broaden the base of the organization to take account of aspiring women in business who operate outside of Georgetown and its environs.
“The reality is that as things stand the sorts of programmes that WENC-Guyana have to offer are not commonly available to women outside of Georgetown and its environs. My understanding of the role WENC-Guyana is that it is intended to reach out to Guyanese women, wherever we can reach them, who aspire to do well in business and to help contribute to the realization of that goal,” she said.
Launched in March 2013, WENC-Guyana has its origins in the March 2012 Caribbean Women Entrepreneurship Forum. Following the Forum, participants from across the region created WENC of which the Guyana Chapter is now part of this broader regional network.
Arising out of that initiative President Barack Obama and the then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton launched the Women’s Entrepreneurship in the Americas (WEAmericas) at the Summit of the Americas in April 2012. WEAmericas leverages public-private partnerships to increase women’s economic participation in Latin America and the Caribbean by reducing barriers women often face in starting and growing small and medium enterprises.
Stuart who owns and operates her own fashion clothing and craft outlet Junshazyna Fashion said that she wants to begin her tenure as president of the organization by seeking to actualize the objective set out in the original WENC vision.
Stuart said that an organization like WENC-Guyana usually works best if members understand and are prepared to work towards their realization. “In a sense, our members are working for themselves and for their own self-advancement. I have already worked out that the organization will only work for those who are prepared to work for it,” she said.
Stuart, whose business pursuits include fashion design and interior decorating, disclosed that one of her more immediate initiatives as President of WENC-Guyana will be the creation of a mobile flea market that will see the organization moving from one location in coastal Guyana to the next, seeking to create market opportunities for members’ products. “The flea market is one of those practical things which we will be undertaking in order to demonstrate to our members that our focus is on practical ways of responding to the needs of women entrepreneurs. Much of our focus will be on the economic growth and empowerment of our members,” Stuart said.
Business initiatives aside, Stuart said that WENCGuyana will be seeking to offer various types of training to members related to enhancing their skills and strengthening their capacity to run their own businesses.
Stuart said that under her presidency WENC-Guyana will be seeking the support of both the government and the private sector in its quest to realize its goals. “Since the economic emancipation of women is one of the stated objectives of government, I see no reason why we cannot be allies in the search for that objective. There is a role for the private sector here too,” she added. capacity of the school. He said that while the school had done intensive work in mining communities like Mahdia and Tiger Creek and was beginning to make a greater impact in areas like Konwaruk and Micobie, he was concerned that some of the heavily populated areas in the Middle Mazaruni, Cuyuni and the North West District where gold production was high, the impact of the school was below what might have been expected. He said that “a lack of resources, staff and logistics” continued to be the primary reasons for the continued limitations of the Mining School. While the school had already created and equipped centres at Mahdia, Bartica and Linden, staff limitations continued to challenge the operationalizing of those centres.
Meanwhile, Applewhite-Hercules said that much of the school’s focus this year will be on work aimed at enhancing environmental practices in the sector. Towards this end he disclosed that a collaborative initiative with Conservation International was being sought with a view to further exploring the possibility of mercury-free alternatives for the sector. Work is also expected to be done this year on the use of flocculants to reduce the turbidity of the discharge from mining pits.
Applewhite-Hercules also said that this year the school will be seeking to engage the Environmental Protection Agency to pursue discourses aimed at harmonizing training to ensure that it remains relevant to their requirements.
Applewhite-Hercules, meanwhile, singled out the increased capacity to employ technology in various facets of mining and mining oversight as one of the key accomplishments of the Mining School. He said that 25 GGMC officials had already been trained in the use of QGIS software – a geographic information systems tool that provides capabilities to help visualize, manage, edit, analyze data and compose printable maps and as a consequence now possess the capacity to undertake the kind of monitoring that would enable them to determine the extent of the vulnerability of mining pits to collapse.