Happy New Year GGR Family!

Maureen Bunyan is an Emmy Award winning Anchor at WJLA TV 7, ABC Affiliate in Washington D.C.  She is of  Guyanese and Aruban heritage.  Her parents moved from Guyana to Aruba in the 1930s, where Maureen was born.  The eldest of three daughters,  immigrated with her family to the United States when she was just eleven years old, after her father, Arthur Bunyan, accepted a job with a company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her mother Wilhelmina was…

On October 29th His Excellency President David Granger delivered the main address at the Ministry of Education’s 19th annual National Education Award ceremony at the National Cultural Centre. The Office of the Presidency honored several students who excelled in high school in 2015, and at the CAPE and CSEC examinations.  The majority of the top achievers were girls  representing public and private high schools throughout Guyana. Below President David Granger and officials from the Education Ministry poses for a…

Via stabroeknews.com Guyanese-born physician assistant, a frontline worker at a New York hospital, successfully beat the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and returned to her job when it was “overloaded” with patients, many of whom were dying.  Shara Khan told Stabroek News (SN) she was not prepared for what came next. The facility was turned into a Covid-19 hospital. “I badly wanted to go back to work as I knew there were people there that needed…

Afuwa Granger is a visual artist, writer, and poet who uses her work to construct a visual language around intersections of identity, particularly race and gender. She was born in Guyana to current President, David Granger and First Lady, Sandra Granger.  Afuwa studied in Jamaica at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, and lives and creates her artwork in Vancouver, Canada. Afuwa’s  art is based on her family photos and the idea of the immigrant…

Rashada Harry is the Founder of  Your Future Your Ambition,  a social enterprise she created in 2012, which aims to encourage people from Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority backgrounds into Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) related careers.  Since its launch 6 years ago over 4500 students have attended the YFYA annual event.  The social enterprise has been recognized for its excellence and the directors as leaders and role models in STEM.  Rashada was motivated to…

This past Monday, on May 26th, Guyana celebrated it’s 49th independence anniversary, which coincided with the Inauguration of Guyana’s 8th Executive President His Excellency David Arthur Granger at the Guyana National Stadium.  While a proud moment for Guyanese living at home and abroad, it was this image of Stacey Codogan performing a sword salute and depicting such strength and beauty that stole the hearts and admiration of many across social media.   She Rocks!     Photographer: Brian Gomes.

Helen Taitt was the founder and director of the School of Guyana Ballet, which trained many of the teachers with the Guyana National School of Dance. Her dancing career spanned two decades from the 1950s to 1970s. Helen made the theatre her life-long career, performing, composing and teaching right up to the end of her life. She was Guyana’s best known, most accomplished and acclaimed professional dancer, and was also a choreographer, writer, dance instructor,…

Sasha Wintz, 18, who is born to Guyanese parents, was crowned Miss World BVI 2015 on Sunday, October 3rd. She is known for her stunning performance at BET Music Matters last year and her ‘Beauty with a Purpose’ project will be focused on persons with special needs. During her introduction, the teenager shared her personal experience, having an 8 year-old nephew who has Down Syndrome. Her nephew, Jaquan Wintz also shared the stage with Wintz after…

When she entered her guidance counselor’s office earlier this year, it was not a big revelation. Bibi Sulaman, a senior at Jamaica Gateway to the Sciences High School, had met with her counselor to verify her credits and classes before graduating this June. Casually, her counselor revealed that she was valedictorian of her class of around 150 students. “It wasn’t a surprise,” said Bibi. “[Being valedictorian] wasn’t my goal. I just tried to do my…

At a time when many cultural forces continue to stand in the way of women pursuing careers in the science and technology fields, Dr.  Shabana Amanda Ali is proving to be a great role model for young female scientists.  A self-professed “Multidimensional Student of Life” her work speaks volumes of her level of commitment to the field of research science.  After witnessing the decline of her grandmother’s health due to osteoarthritis, Dr. Ali  decided to dedicate her career to finding a…

Delece Smith-Barrow is a lifelong writer and journalism enthusiast. She is a higher education reporter at U.S. News & World Report, where she covers admissions challenges and student life issues for graduate students, as well as minorities in college and graduate school. She also edits stories on trends in online education and how to pay for an education. Prior to working as an education reporter, she worked as a producer, online editor and writer at…

Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett was born in the Amerindian Village of Santa Rosa, Guyana. She received her early education in Santa Rosa and then move to the capital Georgetown to attend a private school.  Minister Rodrigues-Birkett then left Guyana for Saskatchewan, Canada, on scholarship, to pursue studies in Business Administration and Indian Studies. Following her return to Guyana in 1993, she read successfully for a degree in Social Work at the University of Guyana, while simultaneously managing…

My mother is a woman like no other. Nicola Amanda Dover Roberts, amazing mother of three rocks!!! She is the best mom that you can ever ask for. She is brave, adventurous, loving, charismatic, caring and to top it off kind-hearted. She is an intelligent, hardworking young woman whose beauty is beyond compare. I remember this one instant whereby I wanted to participate in my primary school’s fair because it was my last year in the…

Guyanese designer, Keisha Edwards of Shasha Designs, on February 19 represented Guyana at the first-ever Commonwealth Fashion Exchange programme, which saw designers and artisans from 52 Commonwealth countries producing a fashion ‘look’ using principles of sustainable excellence. The design was unveiled at a special reception at Buckingham Palace for London Fashion Week. In an interview with The Pepperpot Magazine Keisha said that she feels excited, honoured and humbled to have been selected to participate in…

  Born in Guyana in January 1923,  Patricia Gomes has purposefully dedicated more than half of her life to theatre and along the way has been quite accomplished in other areas. She has, as they say, “done it all” – from stage plays to storytelling to dancing her life away, much to the enjoyment of the audiences she thrilled.  In 2010, Ms. Gomes was named by “Special Person”  by Kaieteur News, and in an interview…