Retired community health worker Sylvia Roberts steps up to lead women’s group shade house project

Sylvia Roberts, 65, a farmer, former community health worker, experienced midwife and community activist has volunteered her services to establish Morawhanna Shade House Women’s Group to pilot shade-house farming in the once partially abandoned riverain community of Morawhanna, Barima River, Region One (Barima/Waini).

“Morawhanna was bright in the 1980s when I first came to live here,” Roberts told Stabroek Weekend recently. “It was a complete village with thriving farms and businesses but then the flooding increased and due to lack of drainage, people left their farms and moved away. Now that government has dug canals and built-up dams in an ongoing impoldering project, people are moving back to Morawhanna.”

Stabroek Weekend caught up with Roberts who was in Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo for a brief stay before returning to her Region One home. 

“Morawhanna is going through a rebirth. It is coming back up again due to the assistance we are getting through the LCDS [Low Carbon Development Strategy] cash grants and even the government cash grants. People are making use of them in the best way possible,” she said.