Baháʼí Faith in Guyana

The sixth of the tablets was the first to mention Latin American regions and was written on April 8, 1916, but was delayed in being presented in the United States until 1919 — after the end of World War I and the Spanish flu.

[18] The sixth tablet was translated and presented by Ahmad Sohrab on April 4, 1919, and published in Star of the West magazine on December 12, 1919.

[1] Following the release of these tablets and then ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's death in 1921, a few Baháʼís began moving to or at least visiting Latin America.

In 1927 Leonora Armstrong made public mention of the religion in the capital city of Georgetown of what was then British Guiana.

The Baháʼí National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada was appointed the Inter-America Committee to take charge of the preparations.

[20] The first Baháʼí to settle in Guyana was Dr. Malcolm King, a Jamaican, who travelled from his home in the United States in 1953[2] via Trinidad.

[23] In 1963 smaller groups of Baháʼís were known in Campelville, Kitty and Lodge Village (now suburbs of Georgetown), Grove and Providence (both in Demerara-Mahaica in East Bank Demerara), and MacKenzie (now part of Linden).

The members elected were Jamshid Ar-jomandi; Henry Dolphin; August Holland; Cheryl Plerre; Ellen Widmer; Mr. Rivadavia da Silva, Eileen Hill, Ivan Fraser, and Daisy Hahnfeld.

While there Rúhíyyih Khanum again spoke to the public press and civic leaders this time including then President Arthur Chung.

[28] The Conference was especially for Baha'i youth of Trinidad and Tobago, Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Guyana, Surinam and French Guiana.

[37] The religion entered a new phase of activity when a message of the Universal House of Justice dated 20 October 1983 was released.

[39] In 1984 Baháʼí Frank Fernandes, a native of Guyana, was the guest of honour at a dinner of civic leaders followed by a piano recital at, and a fundraiser for,[40] the National Cultural Centre for an audience of 250.

Training workshops were organized with the cooperation of the Ministry of Education which were developed in the context of the Macushi and Wapashana languages.

There are 650 full-time students (representing 22 nationalities) and 300 adults who pursue the International General Certificate of Secondary Education in the evenings.

[47] In the 2000s Baháʼí organizations cooperated with projects to fight the spread of poverty[48] and AIDs among youth - as well as studies on the effectiveness of religion in motivating people to deal with social ills.

[49] In 2002 the Baháʼís collectively and individually contributed to the Guyana Peace Education Institute at its inauguration[50] and to discussions on reform held at the Muslim Youth Organization office.

[51] Youth workshops were noted in 2006 presenting patterns for change to cycles of social ills like alcoholism and family violence[52] and participated in national discussions and exhibitions on ethnic relations by the National Commission on Ethnic Relations in 2006[53] and dialogues on religious tolerance.