Providence and Herstelling residents participate in the Women’s Safety Audit workshop

The Ministry of Housing and Water in association with the Central Housing & Planning Authority (CH&PA) yesterday hosted a Women’s Safety Audit (WSA) Workshop.

The sessions were facilitated at Providence Phase 2 and Herstelling New Scheme on the East Bank Demerara (EBD) and its purpose is to properly plan infrastructure development to cater to women’s safety.

The WSA workshop makes up a component of the Adequate Housing and Urban Accessibility Programme (AHUAP) which speaks to improving infrastructure in targeted communities to include the safety of women and girls.

Minister within the Ministry of Housing Susan Rodrigues in her address to residents spoke on the importance of such engagements to the country’s developmental process and the intention is to ensure infrastructure being done in communities is functional and practical to the citizens who reside in those areas.

While infrastructure works are earmarked for these areas under AHUAP, Minister Rodrigues said the government has awarded contracts for the upgrading of 1100 community roads with 13 roads slated to be upgraded at Providence and 24 at Herstelling. Another 20 roads have been identified for an upgrade at Peter’s Hall and other existing EBD housing schemes.

The Women’s Safety Audit assesses the safety of women in public spaces from the woman’s perspective, through engagements with women and other stakeholders in areas where infrastructure works are being done under the AHUAP. The results of the workshop can influence the design of infrastructure interventions for those areas.

Through the AHUAP initiative, US$27 million ($5.4 billion) has been allotted through the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to execute projects in several areas across the country including the construction of core homes, and infrastructure works such as upgrading of roads and drainage systems and installation of street lights

Residents were given the opportunity to identify several areas of concern in their respective communities which they raised with the minister such as; the issue of poorly lit streets and the lack of police presence in the Providence area among others.