Santa Aratack diversifying its village economy
The community of Santa Aratack is making strides in diversifying its economy, through initiatives in agriculture, tourism and other sectors.
Speaking with the Department of Public Information (DPI) on the sidelines of the village recent heritage celebrations, Toshao Christopher Cornelius outlined the progress that the community has been making in fostering its development.
“This is one of the closest villages to Georgetown, and tourists visit here a lot, every week we get like one hundred and something tourists.. visiting Santa Aratack,” he said.
The village has received help from the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) to train persons like cooks and tour guides.
There is now a heritage committee which was established by the village, and they are looking to build a better Guest House.
“We get PG grants and we use it for like specific projects…that’s like the village comes to a vote if they want to build a guest house, if they want to build an office…then we go to those projects,” Cornelius stated.
The community, like many others, received the Low Carbon Development Strategy Grant in 2025 and this was distributed to the different households.
“We share it out to every household. 460 thousand dollars delivered to every household in the village and with that money shared, some people bought engines, some people bought freezer, some people do chicken, and some people open a small shop. There is so much done with that little bit money,” he stated.
Cornelius also took DPI to two shade houses in the village which is being managed by the Community Service Officers and the temporary workers in the community.
“We got 5 million dollars from the government and this is for the CSO, so they come and they plant, what you see they plant in there, we done reap out about seven crops already, sometimes they share some, sometimes we sell the school, but we get enough for ourself in the village, that’s a great initiative from the government also,” he said.
The community has Fifteen Community Service Officers and 18 Temporary workers.
Steps are also being taken to start apiculture and pineapple cultivation.
The community has also constructed a Mechanic Shop, which was funded by the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs.
“Thank the government for funding this project so that we could repair our own engine and we could weld up our own things because we have skilled people in the village could do that,” he said.
There is also new training centre that is yet to be operationalized, once the equipment is installed.
“That is to do like joinery, like table chair bed and so on, so like if you have to go and buy a bed frame way out, we could make it right here,” he said.
Santa Aratack has been producing some of the best handicraft in the whole country, and has the largest craft shop in the country.
“I want to thank the government for their support because our village don’t get much revenue, but is the government that does really put money into the village and we execute the projects and that is what kinda develop our village,” he stated.
Santa Aratack is the only Amerindian Community in Region Three and is located in the Kamuni Creek.
Below are some scenes from Santa Aratack Mission.
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