President responding well to radiotherapy treatment
— keeps active schedule in Cuba
PRESIDENT David Granger has commenced his regime of radiotherapy scheduled to be completed in the next five days, Guyana’s Ambassador to the Republic of Cuba, Ambassador Halim Majeed, has disclosed.
In a statement on Saturday, Ambassador Majeed said the Cuban Medical Team has expressed their full satisfaction with the President’s response to treatment and the overall state of his health. He will return to Guyana next week.
President Granger is being treated for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma – a type of cancer.
He arrived in Cuba on April 2, 2019 for further medical evaluation, and has been keeping an active schedule in Havana.
Ambassador Majeed said last Friday, the President visited the Escuela Taller de la Habana in Old Havana, and met the administrative staff and two groups of trainees in a classroom situation.
“The Taller Escuela was established in 1992 and is part of the Office of the Historian of the City of Havana. It trains young people in a variety of skills such as masonry, plumbing and carpentry, among others, and helps them to achieve upward mobility in the system,” Ambassador Majeed explained.
He said President Granger has expressed a strong interest in vocational and skills training and wanted to know and learn more about the Cuban approach to the training of Cuban youths who are not in the formal education system.
“He is hoping that the recently-formed Guyana Youth Corps could benefit from the experience of the Taller Escuela and future cooperation between the two institutions,” Ambassador Majeed noted.
President Granger also visited the Cuban National Zoological Park and the National Botanic Garden of the University of Havana over the past two weeks. During his tour of both the Zoological Park and the Botanic Garden, he explained some aspects of Guyana’s ‘Green’ State Strategy to the administrative staff and tasked the Guyana Embassy with developing MoUs between Guyana and those Cuban agencies.
“In reviewing Guyana-Cuba collaboration in the health sector, President Granger expressed a deep concern with the high incidence of cancer, heart disease and diabetes in Guyana and would like stronger ties between Guyana and the Cuban medical institutions that specialise in those ailments,” Ambassador Majeed stated.
Just before leaving Guyana for Cuba, President Granger spent his time engaging youths and building their potentials.
In late March, the President launched the Guyana Youth Corps at Kuru Kuru on the Linden-Soedsyke Highway, as part of his government’s effort to tackle unemployment.
The corps, through which approximately 500 young adults are in training across the country, is designed to address social problems affecting youth such as unemployment, drugs and drug abuse, illiteracy and innumeracy, suicide, low self-esteem, teenage pregnancy and poor leadership skills. Its mission is to educate, train, empower and promote social cohesion among young people while contributing to the sustainable development of Guyana and its people. President Granger said the launch of the youth corps is a signal to the country’s young people that their efforts at self-advancement will be supported fully by the state.
President Granger also attended the Regional Youth Caucus held under the theme ‘Advancing Youth Participation in National Development.’ In his address to the hundreds of young people that were present at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre, he challenged them to be stewards of their country, leaders in their communities and to make use of the tools provided to create a better Guyana for future generations.
