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The Uplift Project Building strong communities through small businesses. Join our movement and to help rural entrepreneurs in Guyana!

10/03/2026

Back before plastic and overconsumption, people had to make do with what is around them.
Here, is demonstrated the indigenous method of making chord with a plant that can be found in the rainforest.
Lloyd demonstrates making the chord, but says with some skill and a half hour this could be weaved into a backpack, allowing a hunter to carry out their game without having to bring a backpack with them.
This same plant is sought after by craftsmen for weaving baskets, making a matapea to squeeze the juice out of cassava, making a crab trap or 'crab quick'.



09/29/2026

The road was bad, but the advise was good.
This man was the chief, or Toshao of his village for many years. With that role comes lots of responsibility.
I asked him if there's any lessons he's learned from his time there and he replied with a Shakespeare quote.

Maybe my English teacher was right when they told me that Shakespears words are boundless in their application to our modern, or traditional world.


09/26/2026

Not all water is safe to swim.
It's good that we got a warning, because I usually assume if it's not moving fast it's safe.
But the woman who gave us lunch said that just a week ago a young girl lost a finger while swimming. Because of this, nobody will eat the piranhas for a few weeks.
Small things that I would never think of but are common sense to someone who grew up in the interior.
Legend says, that the ranchers who used to swim their cattle across the Essequibo river would loose one or two each year just to piranhas. I don't know if I believe this, but it definitely could be true.


09/26/2026

In Guyana, climate change doesn't mean temperature change.
The once predictable weather patterns of wet and dry are now much less predictable.
Planting at the beginning of the rainy season doesn't guarantee that water will come to help the seeds germinate. Farmers like Ralph have to deal with these changes, when they are accustomed to farming in more predictable conditions.
A small tool like a water pump, can really make a difference. Allowing Ralph to irrigate his crops and know for sure that he will get the yield he is expecting this season.


09/25/2026

The jungle takes over fast.
An area that was cleared will look overgrown in just a year, and a farm left unattended for even a few months will take a weedwacker and cutlass to get it back to airable land.
This farm has been neglected for a little while, a few peppers are dotted in the undergrowth and cassava towers over the rest.
The upside, is when these plants are slashed and burned, it turns a lot of nutrients back into the soil, allowing for good crop yields if the fields are rotated properly.

09/10/2026

Sometimes $500 doesn't just help someone-it gives them the final piece they need to start changing their own life.
In a remote village in Guyana, Forrest Mcsweeney and the Uplift Project met a woman who had learned how to make cinder blocks. She had the skills. She had the customers. She just needed the tools.
They gave her about $500.
By that evening, she had purchased secondhand equipment. Two days later, she was making blocks and already selling them in her community.
That's the kind of grassroots impact Forrest believes in: finding the last hurdle standing in someone's way and helping remove it.
Coming soon on The Human Adventure, Forrest shares how the Uplift Project is using direct microgrants to create real, measurable change in rural Guyana.
Thanks to The Uplift Project for the Ta clips.
...

09/07/2026

Sometimes $500 doesn't just help someone-it gives them the final piece they need to start changing their own life.
In a remote village in Guyana, Forrest Mcsweeney and the Uplift Project met a woman who had learned how to make cinder blocks. She had the skills. She had the customers. She just needed the tools.
They gave her about $500.
By that evening, she had purchased secondhand equipment. Two days later, she was making blocks and already selling them in her community.
That's the kind of grassroots impact Forrest believes in: finding the last hurdle standing in someone's way and helping remove it.
Coming soon on The Human Adventure, Forrest shares how the Uplift Project is using direct microgrants to create real, measurable change in rural Guyana.
Thanks to The Uplift Project for the Ta clips.

09/07/2026

Giving charity doesn't have to be over complicated.
When someone is living in extreme poverty, they make very good use of the few resources they have.
Here, we met a woman who needed to get a medical note for her disability, which would allow her to get a small pension. While she was clearly unable to work, she was not able to make the multiple hour trip to the doctors where she could get the exam.
But $100 that someone handed me before I left on this trip, was able pay for that transportation, and a hotel to spend the night.
Then a friend will help expatiate her paperwork process and get her on benefits immediately.
$100. Very small compaired to everything else that needs to happen for her to get a pension, but it's what it took to get her that pension, this week.
A small amount of money can make a real big difference, when given to the right person, in the right way.

09/05/2026

The Kanima is a legend and a mystery in Guyana.
A human who can transform into an animal, it is spoke of through out all the different tribes of indigenous people that I have met.
More than shapeshifting, it's said to have other supernatural powers, and is always illusive.
When people speak of it, they talk about it as if it's a myth, but with some truth embedded in it.
Some of the most intelligent and rational people I've met will swear that the kanima is more than just a myth, but a real phenomenon that the they have observed at least once in their life.
As for me, I'm starting to believe it's more than just a story.



09/04/2026

In this rainforest of Guyana, encounters like this are common.

Farmers often run into signs of the Jaguar while surveying for new land or trecking to their plots.
While tracks and growls are common to come by, the Jaguar is rarely seen.
As Lloyd said; 'you only see it if it wants you to'.
For farmers who spend a life in the bush, they may only encounter it a handful of times.
If you want to support rural farmers in Guyana and make their time in the bush easier and more fruitful, follow along with the Uplift Project and see how we support them.

You can also learn more on our website: upliftproject.org





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