Minister for Housing, Lands and Community Development, the Hon. Alleyne Walker, headed a delegation from the Ministry and the Venezuelan Embassy in Grenada on a visit to three housing schemes and historic sites on Wednesday.
The delegation included Venezuelan Ambassador His Excellency, Ali Jose Diaz Ascanio, (pronounced As-can-e-oh) Second Secretaries to the Embassy, Felipe Serrano and Jose Antonio Gomez and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Eunice Sandy-David.
The visit was designed to give the Venezuelans an appreciation of the design of houses used in the housing schemes in Grenada which included the Beausjour, Diamond and Dunfermline.
The officials were also looking into possible areas for construction of the 2nd phase of 400 additional houses, in keeping with the commitment given by the Venezuelan Government to provide 500 houses after the passage of Hurricane Ivan. So far the first 100 have been constructed at the Simon Bolivar Housing Settlement in La Calome.
The Hon. Minister shared that, “ The importance of expanding our housing stock for low income earners is critical at this time. The evidence can be seen in the more than 500 applications received for the 100 houses at the La Calome housing scheme.
The team made several stops at various places of interest, including the Jessamine Gardens in Grenville Vale, Douglaston Estate, the Rum Distillery at River Antoine, Lake Antoine, Leapers Hill and Belmont Estate.