OVER 200 women-owned businesses will be on display this Saturday, when the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security opens its third Women Empowering, Leading, Innovative, and Flourishing Together (We Lift 3) exhibition at the MovieTowne parking lot.
The two-day exhibition will commence at 11:00 hours and run until 18:30 hours on Saturday and Sunday.
The aim of this initiative is to discover, support, and give the hundreds of women who will be showcasing their unique businesses and talents, the opportunity to be seen on the local and international stage.
Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Vindhya Persaud, in an invited comment, said that “We Lift” is one of the largest exhibitions in the country and it focuses primarily on women.
She said that this will be the third year for the exhibition, but because of the huge success from the two previous years, they have outgrown the Arthur Chung Conference Centre and opted for the MovieTowne parking lot so that they could accommodate more businesses as well as shoppers and onlookers.
Minister Persaud said: “We are expecting 200 plus women to be here, and they are showcasing their diverse businesses, from food to services. In between those fashionable accessories, and everything else that you can think of, it will be here this weekend.
“We will be making some very exciting announcements that will be coming out of my ministry. We are also creating new opportunities and delivering new areas of expertise to the Guyanese public, one of which also complements our service.”
She went on to say that admission is free on both days, and she encouraged everyone to come out and support, and motivate women from across Guyana.
The minister related that she has always championed women’s independence for as long as she can remember, but according to her, the tagline of everything that she has done since being the Minister of Human Services is moving women from a state of dependence to one of independence.
“Independence can be from a financial standpoint to a personal state of independence because it varies, but I want women to realise that nothing is impossible, and the support is forthcoming from my ministry. We started this momentum with the first ‘We Lift’ two years ago, and that was driven by the WIN Programme which six thousand plus women accessed in two years, and that is not something that should ever be underemphasised,” Dr. Persaud said.
That is because it also contributed to moving Guyana up 18 spots on the index, which speaks to the narrowing of the gender gap from the World Economic Forum report.
“So, I believe that women have taken advantage of the opportunities offered by the Government of Guyana and this ministry in particular in that all our training programmes are free, they are accessible to high-income individuals, and there is no prerequisite to entering,” Dr. Persaud said.
