The Barama Company Limited's medical assistance programme

The Barama Company Limited's medical assistance programme
Kaieteur News, 13 December 2007
Dear Editor,

Readers like me will be pleased to read the following account of the
Barama Company's activities under the rubric of ‘Corporate
Responsibility' in the 2007 Annual Report of Samling Global Ltd., its
parent company: “Community Assistance Programmes - Medical assistance
programme.

“In Guyana , we have developed a Medical Assistance Programme to
provide forest communities access to health care in the forest. It aims
to promote the total health of the communities it serves through the
identification, training, equipping and supporting of community leaders
as a primary tool for improving the health of individuals, families and
communities.

“Where possible, the programme aims to improve the quality of life of
the forest communities by working to prevent, control, and eradicate
infectious diseases, when possible.

It also brings about awareness through the training and education about
possible health threats.

“The Medical Assistance Programme is funded and administered by our
wholly owned subsidiary, Barama Company Limited,” (pg 24 of the Annual
Report 2007 of Samling Global Ltd).

Through your columns, I would like to ask the Barama Company Ltd. to
provide us with details of this Medical Assistance Programme – the
names of the targeted communities, the details of supportive projects
carried out in 2006-7, number of beneficiaries and the cost of each
project.

It is curious that there is no information on this Medical Assistance
Programme on the Barama Company's website.

I also wish to ask Guyana's Minister of Health to let us know how much
else the state would have had to spend in those communities in each
year had it not been for Barama's Medical Assistance Programme.

For 2006, the Guyana Revenue Authority reported under what it labeled
‘Revenue Loss' that Barama Buckhall and Barama Company Ltd. Benefited
from US$647,000 and US$877,000 respectively in taxes foregone.

Barama Company Ltd. was not required to ‘give back' any part of these
waivers of US$1.5 million to the communities on whose lands they are
logging. So let us give praise if praise is due.

Janette Bulkan