Dear Editor,
The Guyana Consulate of New York conducted another successful outreach among the Diaspora outside of the Big Apple last Saturday April 13 at the Guyanese Community Center in Schenectady in upstate New York State to address a demand for services.
Ambassador Michael Brotherson, the Consul General, led the outreach team to Schenectady that provided various types of services including those related to processing of passports, births and marriage certificates, registration of overseas births, power of attorneys, NIS Life Certificates, notarization of documents, among others.
This outreach came on top of one done in Brooklyn two weeks ago and another in Little Guyana Richmond Hill a week ago. This outreach project builds on ongoing efforts in Guyana in providing efficient public services, a new initiative introduced by the government of Guyana.
Government has been transformed, taking services to the people. It is part of an integration programme with Guyanese Diaspora to maintain connection with the homeland and to inform them about the availability of new services.
The New York Consulate outreaches have as one of its new missions to strengthen government capacity and effectiveness in service delivery. It provides the only support for communities in the New York northeast USA region. The consulate services have benefited Guyanese communities across New York City, the state, and the Northeast region.
Schenectady hosts a vibrant Guyanese community. The town was very critical at one time to the economy of New York State producing electricity and health care products. Thomas Edison electric company, George Westinghouse and other manufacturing industries were located there. It was an extremely prosperous town boasting among the highest per capita and median family income. But electricity generation and manufacturing produced poisonous pollution with serious health consequences. The government fined the polluters and required them to clean up the town and neighbourhoods.
In consequence, people migrated out of the town. The government invested heavily in cleaning up the polluted area. Some Guyanese made a move and Guyanese real estate agents in Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn started marketing the area encouraging Guyanese to settle there. The town council also encouraged Guyanese and other migrants to settle in the town offering various incentives.
Guyanese began going in large numbers at the turn of the new millennium and settled down. They rehabilitated and transformed the town, purchasing multiple properties and rehabilitating them. What two decades ago looked like an abandoned, zombie town is now a very prosperous city.
Schenectady today has a large cluster of 5,600 Guyanese plus their American born children, accounting for more than 10% of the town’s population. Scores of Guyanese migrated out of the town over the last decade to Florida to join family members. There are also hundreds of Trinidadians and other West Indians who settled there. These migrants had initially settled in New York City and began moving to the upstate town over the last two decades. Though very small numerically, they have made significant contributions to the economy through their strong work ethic and taxes.
Guyanese have been drawn to the town by its affordable home ownership and other real estate and lower taxes than in New York City. Jobs are also readily available in the town and surrounding areas. There is virtually no unemployed eligible Guyanese. Almost every Guyanese family is a homeowner in the area with some owning multiple homes that they rent to Americans. Each family also owns at least two vehicles. And the area has a mandir and a masjid and a West Indian store and West Indian fast-food restaurant as well as other institutions to serve cultural needs of the growing community.
The mayor of the small town is a Guyanese. The town hosts an annual Guyana Day in the summer, coming right after Guyana Independence Day and it also hosts Indian Arrival Day celebrations. Concerts of leading Guyanese and Trinidadian artistes were held last year. Guyanese politicians are known to visit the town meeting the Diaspora to drum up support for their party.
Addressing the Diaspora in Schenectady last Saturday, Ambassador Michael Brotherson said: “This outreach providing services to the Diaspora is the government’s and the consulate’s ongoing and continuing efforts to ‘take government’ to the people by addressing the kind of services they need”.
About 200 nationals were served at the Schenectady outreach as compared with 150 in Brooklyn and 300 in Little Guyana.
The mayor, John Mootvoten, visited the outreach and talked about his role in helping Guyanese to become integrated into the community and praising them for their enormous contributions to the town.
Guyanese nationals were high in praise for the outreach initiative of the Consulate to provide the kind of services they need. The Consulate General, Ambassador Brotherson, thanked Mayor John Mootvoten, the Town Council, and Guyanese community leaders for helping with the organization of the services activity. Ambassador Brotherson said. “The Consulate is pleased to be able to take Government to the people”.
The next outreach is in New Jersey to be followed by Connecticut, both of which have large numbers of Guyanese. The Consulate is also contemplating one in Boston which also has a large number of Guyanese. Ambassador Brotherson said outreaches in the Diaspora are extremely important to maintain trans-linkage with the homeland.
As beneficiaries of the services commented, the community outreach provided services that would otherwise be difficult to access as the Consulate is located in crowded Manhattan where transportation is difficult. It was particularly helpful for the elderly.
Ambassador Brotherson noted, “The community outreaches help to connect the Diaspora with the services they need to maintain their ties and links to the motherland and to access benefits they earned while contributing to the development of Guyana.”
Yours sincerely,
Vishnu Bisram
