(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) “You are the Community; you are CARICOM. I believe that things will change because we want to change them. I want to congratulate you as you have decided to give your time to better this world.”
This was the message His Excellency Michel Martelly, Chair of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community and President of Haiti brought to staff members of the CARICOM Secretariat whom he addressed briefly on Thursday afternoon during his whirlwind official visit to the Secretariat.
President Martelly arrived for his first visit to Georgetown on Wednesday evening and departed on Friday morning.
While he held discussions with the Secretary-General and members of the Executive Management Committee of the Secretariat, and honoured engagements with his counterpart, His Excellency Donald Ramotar, President of Guyana, President Martelly reserved time in the afternoon for interaction with Secretariat staffers. Staff members in Barbados, Jamaica, and Canada joined the interaction via videoconferencing.
“You are our reality; you are our hope, and I thank you. I am proud to have the chance to chair the Community and visit with you. I am so happy. Thank you for making it possible. Thank you for keeping the dream alive,” the President told staffers, eliciting robust applause during his brief address to staffers in Guyana, Barbados, Jamaica and Canada via videoconferencing. He mingled with staffers during a reception that featured an exchange of gifts, Haitian music. Haitian art, culled from the collection of staff members, adorned the hallways.
At a press conference later in the evening, the President told representatives of the media that the visit was “very important …for me as Chairman of CARICOM”.
“In fact, I thought it was my duty, as Chairman, to visit the headquarters of the Community to meet with the Secretary-General and the hard-working Staff of the CARICOM Secretariat. I have been very touched by the warm welcome which my delegation and I have received,” he added.
