Dinner and Discussion on Discrimination in the Workplace

On Wednesday, August 10, 2016, Ambassador of the United States of America to Guyana, H. E. Perry Holloway hosted a “Dinner and Discussion on Discrimination in the Workplace” at his residence. The milestone event was organized at the request of the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) as part of the Guyana Workplace Equality Project, which is a partnership between SASOD and the US Embassy and funded by the US State Department’s Global Equality Fund. Present at the dinner meeting were key business leaders from major private sector organisations and SASOD’s Advocacy and Communications Officer, Schemel Patrick, and Managing Director, Joel Simpson. 

The gathering discussed practical ways that the private sector can partner with SASOD to tackle discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and health status in the workplace; particularly in policy development and implementation, workplace education programmes and legal reform. 

The other attendees were Vishnu Doerga, President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI); Suzanne French, Executive Director of the Guyana Business Coalition on Health Awareness (GBCHA); Donna Roberts-Benjamin, GBCHA’s President; Ramesh Persaud, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Institute of Private Enterprise Development (IPED) and Past President of the Private Sector Commission (PSC); Patricia Bacchus, CEO of Caribbean Container Inc. and Chairperson of the Board of the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest); Gerald Gouveia, Director of the Roraima Group of Companies; and US Embassy officials Sandra Zuniga Guzman, Deputy Counselor, Political, Economic and Commercial Section D. James Bjorkman, Counselor of the Political, Economic and Commercial Section and Terry Steers-Gonzalez, Deputy Chief of Mission.