Kevon Felmine

On June 18, the com­mu­ni­ty of Marac was blessed, as one of the most mod­ern com­mu­ni­ty cen­tres in the coun­try was of­fi­cial­ly opened. The state of the art fa­cil­i­ty was con­struct­ed at a cost of $6 mil­lion by the Na­tion­al Com­mis­sion for Self Help, along with Faith Con­struc­tion 2000 Ltd.The new cen­tre boasts a spa­cious au­di­to­ri­um with a sol­id teak stage, chang­ing rooms and bath­rooms for per­form­ers, a kitchen, ac­tiv­i­ty rooms, class rooms and a com­put­er lab.Min­is­ter of Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment, Nizam Baksh, made the trip down to the coun­try­side and de­liv­ered the fea­ture ad­dress.Baksh de­scribed the open­ing of the cen­tre as a ma­jor step in de­vel­op­ing the com­mu­ni­ty, as it pro­vid­ed a meet­ing place to ig­nite com­mu­ni­ty dri­ven ac­tion. The cen­tre's aim is to as­sist in the pro­mo­tion of ed­u­ca­tion and cul­ture, while pro­vid­ing an at­trac­tive venue for wed­dings, par­ties and oth­er func­tions."I have every con­fi­dence that Marac will make the Min­istry of Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment proud of this in­vest­ment. It is our gift to the peo­ple of Marac, but it is al­so our in­vest­ment in­to the com­mu­ni­ty," Baksh said.The min­is­ter was al­so on hand to in­stall the Vol­un­tary Fa­cil­i­ty Man­age­ment com­mit­tee. Min­is­ter of Par­lia­ment for Moru­ga, Clifton De Coteau said that the open­ing of the cen­tre was an op­por­tu­ni­ty for the peo­ple of Marac to be dis­cov­ered.The event al­so served as a chance for the Marac Vil­lage Coun­cil to ho­n­our some of it's tal­ent­ed res­i­dents. Among them was school teacher and mu­si­cian, Andy Gabriel, and West In­dies women's crick­et team cap­tain Meris­sa Aguillera.