Santa Rosa is a community in the

Barima-Waini Barima-Waini (Region 1) is a region of Guyana. Venezuela claims the territory as part of Guayana Esequiba. The region is located in the northwest of the country and has a population of 26,941. It covers an area of . It borders the Atlantic Ocean ...

region of northern Guyana. Santa Rosa mission was established in 1840, and is one of the earliest Catholic Missions in Guyana. The village is part of the North West Amerindian District.

Overview

The population of the village and the mission is 913 people as of 2012, however the area has a population of 6,046 people as of 2013 making Santa Rosa is the largest

Amerindian The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples. Many Indigenous peoples of the A ...

settlement in Guyana. This predominantly

Arawak The Arawak are a group of indigenous peoples of northern South America and of the Caribbean. Specifically, the term "Arawak" has been applied at various times to the Lokono of South America and the Taíno, who historically lived in the Great ...

village is located on the

Moruka River The Moruka River or Moruca River is a river in the Barima-Waini region of northern Guyana. The mouth of the river opens to the Atlantic Ocean. Mangrove forests make up the shoreline, turning into swampy savannah wetlands as it moves west. The Mor ...

, 29 km from its mouth. The village is actually a collection of eleven settlements spread out in the Savannah wetlands along a ten-mile stretch of the

. As of 1996, the area is governed by the Moruca Land Council with Santa Rosa as the main settlement. The community began receiving electricity in 2004 when a diesel-powered generator was donated by Mr. Monty Niathally, proprietor of Variety Woods and Greenheart Limited.Government Information Agency (GINA)
/ref> Santa Rosa contains a secondary school,

Santa Rosa Secondary School Santa Rosa Secondary School is a secondary school in Santa Rosa, in the Barima-Waini region of northern Guyana. The school was established in 1991, making it the second secondary school in the area after the establishment of North West Secondar ...

, established in 1991, and a health centre. (The first, North West Secondary School in

Mabaruma Mabaruma is the administrative centre for Region One (Barima-Waini) of Guyana. It is located close to the Aruka River (the Venezuelan border) on a narrow plateau above the surrounding rainforest at an elevation of 13 metres. History Mabaruma wa ...

, was set up in 1965.) The economy is mainly based on

subsistence farming Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow food crops to meet the needs of themselves and their families on smallholdings. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements, with little or no su ...

Notable people

* Stephen Campbell (1897–1966), first Amerindian member of Parliament.

References

Bibliography

{{Settlements in Guyana Populated places in Barima-Waini Indigenous villages in Guyana