As the United Nations seeks to extend the International Decade for People of African Descent, by another decade to fully realize the goals and aspirations of Africans around the world, the Guyana-based, International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly Guyana (IDPADA-G), has made a call for funding to come directly from the United Nations and UN Organizations.

Delivering her statement at the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, currently ongoing in Switzerland, CEO of IPADA-G noted that the extension of the decade is necessary, especially here in Guyana, where she said Afro-Guyanese are fighting for their survival.

“Funding is critical and should come directly from the UN and its agencies, organizations working to fulfil the goal of the decade should not be subject to the whims and fancies of government who only play lip service to its goals. The current government of Guyana never articulated a plan or instituted any policy, nor did it promote any dedicated programme for the decade,” Sampson told the forum.

She said the Government of Guyana has showed little interest to ensure that the goals of the decade are realized and has sought to divide Afro-Guyanese organizations.

“As evidence of the government’s disregard for the decade, it has arbitrarily and vindictively suspended funding for IDPADA-G, a community-based institution focused on goals of the decade, it instead offers cash grants to some IPADA-G member organizations side-stepping the over-arching transformative purpose of the decade while mimicking the colonial divide and rule strategy,” Sampson stated.

Ms. Sampson told the forum that Extra-Judicial killings are continuing here under the current administration, but she went further to tell the forum that Government has been directly involved in the bulldozing of the homes of Afro-Guyanese and displacing them from their communities.

“Instead of Economic Development, we have seen poverty wages for the majority of African descendants in the public service, refusal to negotiate with their unions, discrimination in contracting. Most African- Guyanese are experiencing rising poverty in Guyana’s booming oil economy,” Sampson stated.

In the new decade she said, people of African descent must be protected by the declaration of the promotion and protection and full respect people of African Descent.

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