PPP distributes rice to sacked Rose Hall Sugar Estate workers

The Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) on Sunday distributed in excess of $400,000 worth of rice to workers who were sacked from the Rose Hall Sugar Estate.
That Party’s Regional Supervisor Zamal Hussain explained that the donation of the rice was made by a city businessman.
He noted that the donation was a timely intervention to assist the former Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) workers, so that they can enjoy the holidays with their families.
“It is not much, but it could be of some assistance to persons in this area (East Canje). We know that this area has turned out to be a depressed area whereby hundreds of sugar workers in this area have been affected in a very hard manner, so the Peoples Progressive Party, the General Secretary and the Executive Secretary, urged that we make some contribution to these former GuySuCo workers,” Hussain related.
In December last year, Government closed the Rose Hall and Skeldon Estates in Region Six (East Berbice/Corentyne).
In fact, last year, 1851 workers were sacked from the Skeldon Sugar Estate; 1181 from the Rose Hall Estate; 1480 from the East Demerara Sugar Estate, and 251 from the Wales Sugar Estate.
Region Six had depended heavily on sugar, and closure of two of the three sugar estates in the Region has caused all other sectors to be affected.
After several months of protest action taken by the dismissed workers backed by the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) Government gave the former workers half of their severance packages.
“You can see the urgency and need for what we are distributing, and that can tell the level of hopelessness and desperation that exists among the former sugar workers,” Hussain said as he referred to the crowd, members of which had each gathered to collect a bag of rice.
“They have been affected so badly that some of them are not having a square meal for the day,” Hussain added as he described the impact of the Estate’s closure one year later.
The party official urged the workers to have some hope, and to stay united so that when his party returns to office they will received the ‘Good Life’ as promised.
He also took the opportunity to wish the entire region an enjoyable and incident free holiday.