Scores of women get professional training through empowerment summit

Scores of women drawn from both the public and private sectors are set to receive crucial skills through the Law Enforcement Empowerment Summit 2023 that got underway on Thursday.

The two-day summit is hosted at the Police Officers’ Mess Annexe, Eve Leary, Georgetown, under the theme ‘Embrace Equity’.

During the summit, areas such as human resources management, skills, behaviours, communication skills, team building, decision-making, gender differences, emotional intelligence, mapping the road to entrepreneurship will be discussed.

With these skills, it is expected that the attendees will be able to thrive in their profession to achieve their goals.

Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira, who delivered brief remarks at the opening ceremony, said women in society have always been leaders but access to equal opportunities as their counterparts has been a challenge.

She noted that while many countries are yet to achieve the constitutional protection for woman to gain access to equal opportunities, Guyana has made massive strides.

The recent ban on abortions in certain states in the United States of America, the minister said, is a major reversal that affects the world and affects the choices of women.

“One of the critical things, I think, in the women’s movement is the issue of the link between human rights democracy and development.

“Without human rights and democracy there can be no development and women are the greatest sufferers when there is no democracy and no development,” Minister Teixeira said.

The minister further noted that women must gain access to opportunities because women show the most interest in societal issues and development.

“Women are grasping and seizing at opportunities. They are open to learning and participating in everything because women in workforces are trying to work to support their families, trying to better themselves in their own desires as what they want to become as women and manage families and expected to climb and do well,” she said.

Also highlighting that women continue to work hard and strive for better opportunities for themselves and their families was Member of the Guyana Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) Shaleeza Shaw.

Shaw noted that 40 per cent of the businesses that are members of the GCCI are women-led.

On Wednesday, President Dr. Irfaan Ali disclosed that women makeup 26 per cent of the senior officers in the joint services and in terms of business support, women make up 60 per cent of all of the country’s investments within the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce.

Commissioner of Police (ag), Clifton Hicken, in his remarks on Thursday, said women play a major role in law enforcement and they continue to be valuable members in the team.

“Evolution is evident in the world in which we live and everyone should have an equal chance to strive and prosper in a just society. We must embrace equality before we can have a just and equitable society in all groups,” Hicken said.