THANKS to an initiative of the E-Governance Project under the Office of the Prime Minister, for the first time residents living in the remote village of Champagne, Mahaicony, Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) have Internet access in their community at all cost to them.
The service was set up on Friday, and is available at Champagne Primary and Nursery Schools. Students and other community residents can now visit their electronic devices and connect and access the free wifi.
The remote community has approximately 250 residents comprising of scores of students, including those attending the University of Guyana. The new service has become a welcome release for parents of students in the community, who have had to resort to paying for mobile phone data in order for their children to keep up with their school work.
“Without the Internet, we had to take plans over the phone, we had to buy the phones for them and then and buy the Internet, so it was kind of hard financially; so it’s nice now that they can go to school and get the Internet for free, ”said housewife Lilawattie Lachhman during a phone interview with the Guyana Chronicle on Monday.
Lacchman has two sons in high school and used to spend as much as $ 22,000 a month on cellphone data so they could access their school work.
Internet service provision across the country has come into sharp focus over the past year due to increasing demands from the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to school closures.
Schools in Guyana have been physically closed since March 2020 and at present most of the students in public schools are more or less educated. Lacchman has a son in Grade Nine at Bygeval High School, and another son a Grade Seven at Mahaicony High School. A virtual learning situation has been a strain on the family, as well as the community.
“It was kind of difficult for us, but we’re trying to get everyone to have the Internet for them,” he told the Guyana Chronicle.
Lachhman eventually contacted Regional Vice Chairman Rion Peters, to ask for assistance to rectify the situation. Peters told the Guyana Chronicle that he was happy to facilitate the realization of service in the community.
“They don’t have phone lines and so are there, so is this Internet or they are stealing [the] cost of data that is expensive. It is a good feeling when we can play a role in improving people’s lives and improving the conditions under which they live and more so, being part of a government that is working to fulfill its mandate of improving the livelihoods of all Guyanese, ”he expressed Peters.
Lachhman is very grateful for this new amenity, noting that her children have already started to visit the school to make full use of it.
“I would like to say thank you to them because now the whole community can access the Internet – schoolchildren and adults. So I want to thank the government for that, ”he said.
The E-Governance Project is administered under the National Data Management Authority (NDMA) and provides free Internet access points at several government buildings and public Internet access points.
To date, there are over 200 free government wifi locations nationwide.