The Hinterland scholarship programme, 1962 to 2012

The Guyana Institute of Historical Research held the fifth annual Research Conference on  Saturday 30 June, 2012 in the Conference Room of the National Library.  The Conference chairs were, Ms. Akima McPherson, Mr. Dion Abrams, Mr. Lennox Hernandez and Mrs. Abraham Alli. 
The presenters were, Mr. Autry Haynes, Mrs. Nadia Gamel- Carter, Mr. Michael Khan, Mr. Hugh Payne, Mr. Terrence Fletcher, Mr. William Harris and Mr. Edward Jarvis.

The Hinterland Scholarship Programme, 1962 to 2012

                                                                        By
  Edward Jarvis, Coordinator FAST Track Initiative.  World Bank  Programme

In Guyana when we speak of the Hinterland, we are referring to the interior administrative regions, namely, Region One, (Barima/Waini), Region Seven, (Mazaruni/Cuyuni), Region Eight, (Potaro/Siparuni) and, Region nine, (Upper Essequibo/Upper Takutu).   It is this geographic consideration which led in the first place to the scholarship programme being titled the Amerindian Scholarship programme and later, the Hinterland Scholarship programme.

The Amerindian Scholarship programme, now known as the Hinterland Scholarship Programme, was introduced by the Government of Guyana in 1962.  The scholarship programme was renamed the Hinterland Scholarship programme in 1976.   In 1976, therefore, the first batch of non- Amerindian children was awarded Hinterland Scholarships.

The Ministries of Works and Communications and Local Government were also responsible for the Hinterland Scholarship Programme respectively.  In 1997, the Regional Scholarship Programme was introduced.  This allowed for top top performing students at the Secondary Schools Entrance Examination, (National Grade Six Assessment) from various regions to enjoy the benefits of the programme without leaving their various interior/hinterland locations.

Some students were also awarded scholarships to study at the Guyana School of Agriculture and the Burrowes School of Art.   The ages of students attending the technical institutions ranged from 16 to 25 years, while the ages of those attending the regular secondary schools ranged from 10 to 16 years.

The Programme

Students admitted to the Hinterland Scholarship programme based on academic performance at the Regional level are therefore enrolled at the regional secondary schools or at secondary schools and other institutions in Georgetown.   The Hinterland Scholarship programme is coordinated by the Hinterland Scholarship Division of the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs which is staffed by a senior social welfare officer, a social welfare officer and two student affairs officers.  The scholarship department manages the affairs of the Hinterland and Amerindian Scholarship Awardees.   Some of the services from which children benefit while being on the Hinterland Scholarship Programme include various club activities, library facilities and particiption in various national events.

HINTERLAND DEVELOPMENT IN GUYANA WITH SPECIFIC REFERENCE TO ROAD CONSTRUCTION

                                                        By Terrence Fletcher

A chronological table of trail, road and, railroad interior development from the turn of the twentieth century is presented.   The rationalization of these developments to specify economic developments is discussed.   The commencement of the evolution of these individual elements into an effective transportation network is analyzed.  Future trends are broadly discussed.

The Hinterland Scholarship Programme, 1962 to 2012

HIV IN AMERINDIAN COMMUNITIES

HIV IN AMERINDIAN COMMUNITIES

                                                           BY

                                                  Autry Haynes

The Amerindian population of Guyana is approximately 70,000 representing 9.2% of the country's population.  The majority of this indigenous population group lives in the rainforested hinterland comprising Administratives regions 1,7,8 and 9.   The geographic location of these regions, far from the coastland where 70% of Guyana's population live, results in disparities and inequality of national sevices, including health and social services.   According to 2004 data, HIV prevalence rates among the indigenous populations were still low.  However, the Government recognizes that underreporting of HIV is a problem.   The Ministry of Health estimates 60% underreporting of cases, the result of which is that the true magnitude and determinants of the epidemic are largely unknown and it can be assumed to be even worse where indigenous people are concerned.

The HIV epidemic in Guyana is a serious public health problem, with negative economic and social implications.  Any loss or reduction of human capital and earning potential is devastating in the Guyana context where, according to the 2006 Annual Report of the Ministry of Health, AIDS- related deaths ranked as the number one cause of death among persons aged 25 to 44 years.

Several government and non-governmental agencies, institutions and organisations have been contributing to prevention and mitigation of HIV and its effects in the indigenous communities.  Aquick review of some work done by these agencies seem to indicate that while HIV remains a threat to the public's health and wellbeing, the incidence among indigenous people remains low.   Notwithstanding this, there must be a concerted effort for sustained initiatives to reduce risk and vulnerabilities by stimulating greater local HIV prevention, treatment, care and support responses and local ownership based on existing strengths within the Amerindian population.

The community Life Competence Process is being advocated as learning by sharing interactive and participatory approach to communities taking ownership and responses for coping with concerns and using strengths to realizing their hopes.   The communities are taken through a six step process of envisioning, self-assess, analysing and prioritisin, and planning for action, initially by using existing strengths. 

HIV in Amerindian Communities

The presentation, 'HIV in Amerindian communities' was delivered by Mr. Autry Haynes.

African Extremism in an Age of Political Decay: The case of Guyana Frederick Kissoon Guyana is caught in the throes of an expanding ethnic conflict in which the only parallel of which one can think in contemporary Guyanese history was the pre-independence period in the 1960s when internecine, racial strife led to the loss of hundreds of lives, the victims coming from both major races- African and Indo- Guyanese. The lowest point in that conflict was the violent expulsion of Indians from the mining town of Linden.1 One of the causal factors in that tragic altercation was the covert and overt involvement of the US government against the commuistically sympathetic government of the People's Progressive Party (PPP)led by Cheddi Jagan.2 It can be argued then that the ethnic bitterness was partially engendered from outside and if this exogenous factor was not there, then maybe the mayhem would have been less intense and brutal. British military intervention and changes in the electoral system saw a coalition government in 1964. The government consisted of an anti-Jagan grouping of a Portuguese- based organization, the United Force and the major political party of African Guyanese, the People's National Congress (PNC), that eventually gave way to the domination of the state by the PNC from 1968 until the tenth month in 1992. From 1964 onwards, ethnic conflagration was almost absent from Guyana's political configuration, the reasons for which do not concern us here. But the long rule of the PNC had nothing to erase the deep and acerbic psychological mistrust on the part of Indians for the leadership and membership of the PNC and by extension African- Guyanese in general from which the PNC drew its support. The worst outburst of racial animosity since the fateful 1960s occured after the general election of 1997. All the victims were Indians.3 There were sporadic attacks on the commercial centre of Georgetown before the polls closed in the 1992 election but they were quickly extinguished through the exertion of pressure by US ex-President Jimmy Carter on the then government of Desmond Hoyte to restore order. The post-1997 ethnic attacks on Indians were dwarfed in its implications when compared to the atacks Indian citizens suffered after the results of the 2001 elections were made known. Individual Indians were robbed and beaten and Indian stores were looted and burned. The period from 1997 through the 2001 election and up to this moment in time has witnessed a crescendo of African extremism that today threatens the social fabric of Guyana. It may be more correct to say that the social fabric has already been severely lacerated and hangs in the balance at the present time. By extremism, we refer to a certain emotional approach to political discourse in which violent propaganda, race hate advocacy, extra-parliamentary machinations and psychotic violence form the agenda of African-based organizations that openly seek to remove the PPP government that they consider discriminatory, racist, corrupt, incestuous and beyond the politics of compromise. This paper looks at the main organizational structures of this African extremism. These include the post- 1997 ideology of the PNC; the changing personality make-up of Hoyte after he lost the 1997 poll; the violent, racist advocacy of the PNC aligned television station, HBTV, Channel 9; the African response to the Buxton conspiracy and Keane Gibson's book, The Cycle of Racial Oppression in Guyana; and the new, racially infused, political culture of the Working People's Alliance (WPA). 1. This episode in Guyana's history is well documented but for a vivid description of its tragic nature, see Dr. Cheddi Jagan's The West on Trial: The Fight for Guyana's Freedom (Berlin: Seven Seas Books, 1975) 2. Documents released a few years ago under the 'Freedom of Information Act' in the United States have added more facts on the role of the then US government in the destabilization of the Jagan government. 3. Guyanese Indian Foundation Trust, 'The Civil Disorder of January 12, 1998'. (Mimeo)