But before all the oil, the dizzying economic growth rates, the historic rates of foreign investment, the unmitigated flow of Venezuelan refugees across the border that Guyana shares with Venezuela, and the sudden and urgent resurgence of Venezuelan interest in reclaiming the Essequibo region, there was and continues to be a small group of people who live within the 83,000 square miles of Guyana’s territory. We are called Guyanese!

Since 1966 when Guyana earned independence from the British, though a naturally beautiful and resource rich nation, periods of political unrest and instability, economic stagnation, and poverty forced hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Guyanese to flee their homeland – legally and illegally – in search of “betterment” as would call it, in places like the Caribbean region, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, countries in Africa, and Asia. This consistent and heavy outward flow of Guyanese to various countries across the world led to the formation of a sizable global diaspora with strong familial, communal, political and economic interests in and ties to the homeland.