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CONTACT:
Melanie Reimer
In Guyana, 592-2-227-4096, or

Kay Torrance
In Atlanta, 404-420-5129

Georgetown, Guyana…..The Carter Center's Guyana office will award this week nearly GY$8 million to 10 small nonprofit organizations working to advance the causes of women, youth, and Amerindians. The organizations are: Comforting Hearts (Region 6), Groenveldt Youth Group (Region 3), Guyanese Organization for Indigenous Peoples (GOIP) (Region 4, national scope), Guyanese Women in Development (GUYWID) (Region 6), Hopetown Parent Action (Region 5), Love Outreach International (Region 3), Pomona Women and Youth Reaching Out (Region 2), St. Mark's Mothers' Union (Region 6), Sunshine Women and Youth Group (Region 3), and 21st Century Youth Movement (Region 10).

The grants, in amounts up to GY$1.5 million, are made available through the Center's Small Grants Advocacy Program 2002-2003 and will allow the organizations to implement projects on HIV/AIDS, public education, ethnic relations, and domestic violence.

The organizations receiving the grants aim to raise public awareness and to work for desirable policy changes by decision-makers at various levels of government. In this way, these nonprofit organizations can make a much greater and sustained impact on a larger population, in addition to delivering social services.

The grantees are receiving training in grant management and budgeting. The grants will last from six to nine months. Future training for grantees and other nonprofit groups involved in the program will emphasize how to access local government and media, strategic planning, use of the Internet, and conflict resolution.

The grantees were selected after submitting detailed applications and budgets reviewed by Carter Center staff, analyzed by a grant review committee, whose members were from the Guyanese community, and approved by the Carter Center's Guyana country project director.

The small grants program is organized under the auspices of the U.S. Agency for International Development's program More Responsive and Participatory Governance and Rule of Law in Guyana. Through this program, The Carter Center is working to strengthen the judicial system and the capacity of civil society or nonprofit organizations in Guyana to contribute to public debate and public policy-making, with a focus on organizations that involve and assist women, youth, and Amerindians. The Carter Center is working with the National Democratic Institute and the International Foundation for Election Systems in the overall project. NDI supports legislative and local government reforms, while IFES provides technical assistance on electoral administration.

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