Toshao Loretta Fiedtkou: “Leadership is in my blood”

There are certain traits of our parents we emulate without even trying and according to Loretta Fiedtkou, it is the leadership skills of her father that landed her in the Toshao’s chair. Fiedtkou is the Toshao of Muritaro Village located some 25 miles from the mining town of Linden in Region 10.
She hails from a large family and explains that among her 12 siblings she always stood out as the one who would lead them into every task. It was a trait that her father took special notice of, and he would quite often take her on his campaigning trips and various meetings.
“We grew up in the Upper Demerara River and as a child my father always in leadership and I always admire him and I would follow him. I would be in farm and fishing and so, and when I was playing with other children, I always be the one leading the game. After that, when I started going to school I grew with my grandmother and I was put in the leadership role. I always look out for my smaller siblings and so on,” she said.
Fiedtkou tells me that after she got married and gave birth to her four children, she later left and ventured to the city with her family so that her four children could receive a proper education. It was during that time she took several crash courses in floral craft, sewing and business management. After her children completed their education, she ventured back to her home and began leading her people.
Muritaro has a population of approximately 300 persons and is located along the banks of the Upper Demerara River. While providing a brief history, Fiedtkou revealed that when she returned a Community Development Council (CDC) was running the village and they would have meetings and so, but it never produced any proper developmental plan.
“So I said okay and then they asked me to be the CDC Chair and after that we talked about getting the place into the Titled Community and after then I ventured out. I took the opportunity and I got letters done and sent them to then President Jagdeo,” she said.
After indicating their interest to become a titled community, Fiedtkou then invited then Amerindian Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues to visit the village and began mobilising the villagers. She had the support of over 85 percent of the villagers when the Minister visited and they signed an agreement which saw the village becoming a titled community in 2002.
Impressed with her leadership skills, the people of Muritaro elected Fiedtkou to the office of Toshao and ever since she has remained in the post after various elections. When I asked her to describe her village, she said it was a forgotten land, one that was untouched, the air is fresh and crisp with some of the best people of Guyana.
The main economic activity in Muritaro is logging, and before there was advocacy for sustainable harvesting and preservation of trees, the people of Muritaro have been practicing sustainable harvesting. But like every other community there are developmental issues the residents are forced to face and one such issue is the lack of a secondary school for the children of Muritaro.
The village has a primary school and used to have a primary top where children would attend school until Grade Nine (Form Three), but that was discontinued without any consultation or notice. Ever since, the children have to travel the 25 miles to Linden to attend secondary school, but Fiedtkou has been in constant consultations with the authorities to restore the primary top.
“We have a primary school with like 60 children and the children have to come out to attend secondary school in Linden and we are faced with that challenge. Because of that, we have a lot of dropout children. I can’t see that so sometimes we have to use some of the community fund to help the children to attend school and it is tough for the children. My burden is to take care of all the children. I look at ways and means to see how we can help the children.”
The children who receive community support are now excelling in their studies and making the village proud. Additionally, Fiedtkou has been trying to get a doctor or nurse stationed in the village, but has been met with a lot of hurdles. She explained that because of the lack of a health centre the community built a health post with the hope of it being converted into a health centre so that it would save them from travelling to Linden to access treatment, but to date, despite representation, that is yet to be done.
Fiedtkou plans to continue campaigning for the development of her people and advises everyone to follow their passion. (Guyana Times Sunday Magazine)