About Us
Roraima Learning Trust (RLT) is a Guyana-registered Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) which pioneered the use of online platforms to reduce the cost, and improve the efficacy, of providing learning opportunities to less advantaged communities.
It was founded in January 2013 by Kojo Parris, attorney Hari Narayen Ramkarran S.C. is the Company Secretary and former Education Minister, Malcolm Parris, chairs the entity.
Roraima Learning Trust at Glance
Members of Boards
Kojo has merged his social entrepreneurship & impact investing experience to expertise in global capital markets from NM Rothschilds, MBCA, BancABC & Takura Capital (Actis) across sub-Saharan Africa, and Europe. With an MEng (Manu.) from Cambridge, CMA & CFA, (Pt.2) qualified, he originated & led the launch of pioneering academic courses (SECP) & business entrepreneurship programmes, at GIBS & WITS, respectively. Boards he serves on include Homeless Talk Newspaper, CIDA, Youth Alliance for Leadership & Development in Africa (YALDA), Operation Hope (SA), The HOPE Factory, and advises/initiated many similar entities.
From South Africa, he focuses on ventures which privilege the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including:
* ProjectBounceBack (#PBB), a mentoring and coaching programme for pan-African SMMEs;
* PhilaKahe, the wellness programme targeting LSMs 2-7, inspired by Discovery’s Vitality programme;
* Tshikoni, the re-purposing of libraries into community-focused centres of learning and social cohesion.
Afrika Tikkun Investments leverages over 25 years of ‘Cradle to Career’ solutions-building to invest in a high ESG portfolio of impactful social enterprises.
Malcolm Leroy Parris,CCH, is a former politician and served as the Minister of Education (from 1985). He was subsequently appointed Guyana’s Ambassador to the then Soviet Union in 1987 and served in that capacity until 1989. Mr. Parris continues to give of himself, his expertise and his knowledge generously, engaging himself actively in nation building and community development. As a member of the Tipperary Hall Restoration Committee, he worked earnestly to have the iconic structure restored. He serves as a deacon at Arundel Congregational Church in Buxton and as an executive member of the Tutorial High School Alumni Association in Guyana. In recognition of his outstanding service, Malcolm Leroy Parris was conferred with the Guyana’s Order of Cacique Crown of Honour in 2011.
Hari Narayen Ramkaran, known as Ralph Ramkarran, is a Guyanese politician and lawyer. He served as Speaker of the National Assembly of Guyana from 2001 to 2011.
He attended Queen’s College, and thereafter, he then went on to the UK to study law where he qualified as a lawyer in 1972 in the United Kingdom as a member of Gray’s Inn. He returned to Guyana the following year when he entered into private practice. In 1977, he joined the law firm of Cameron & Shepherd, which is now Guyana’s oldest and largest law firm. He is currently the firm’s Senior Partner. He became a Senior Counsel of Guyana’s judiciary in 1996.
He was elected to the Council of the Guyana Bar Association in 1979 and served for twelve years as Treasurer, Assistant Secretary and Secretary.
In 1994 he was elected as the Guyana Facilitator to the United Nations Good Officer Process under the Geneva Agreement relating to the Guyana-Venezuela Border controversy.
“Knowledge knows no boundaries; online learning breaks them all.”