The technical team, which comprises representatives from her office, two legal practitioners, and representatives from Amerindian organisations and local facilitators based in the communities, is tasked with collecting recommendations from the communities and formulating discussions which will have an input in the revised Act.

Prior to the technical team reaching out to the various communities, consultations were done by the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs with the communities while distributing copies of the existing Act.

According to Rodrigues, among the areas completed are the North and South Rupununi, Region 10 (Upper Demerara/Berbice) and other regions.

The next target community is Mahdia in Region Eight (Potaro/Siparuni) and this meeting will take place during the weekend of April 6, she said.

During this meeting recommendations would be collected from residents and these will be discussed with the technical team.

The Revision of the Amerindian Act is one of the current major focuses of the ministry.

Another is the cancer research project which is encountering several setbacks, the minister has reported.

The ministry is, however, working to rectify these hiccups so that the project may proceed smoothly, she said.