At new centre…
Shivdat couple targets Lusignan/Good Hope for poverty eradication
Story and photos by Priya Nauth, Guyana Chronicle – July 8, 2009
FIGHTING
poverty through education is exactly what the newly opened Lusignan/Good
Hope Learning Centre, on East Coast of Demerara, is seeking to do.
Located at Lot
184 Lusignan Grassfield, it was officially commissioned last Saturday,
in the quest to give hope to children of the communities in building a
better tomorrow.
It is the first
local project undertaken by Restoring Hope International Inc. (RHI), a
New Jersey, United States (U.S.) registered non-profit organisation
founded in 2008 for the purpose.
Its goal is to
break the cycle of despair and promote hope and optimism to impoverished
families in poor parts of Guyana.
The RHI mission
is to put literacy in the forefront and facilitate the development of
knowledge; place emphasis on the value of education by implementing
innovative programmes to develop children’s cognitive abilities and
teach children the necessary skills to think independently, be
inquisitive and creative and help them develop as individuals who
respect themselves and care about others.
The services to
be provided include a library, computer room, literary and arts and
craft programmes, after school help, remedial and adult education
classes, as well as counselling and workshops.
Among the other
RHI initiatives were the ‘Adopt a Family’ project; ongoing work with
impoverished families in the Good Hope and Grassfield areas in Lusignan
and scholarships for school dropouts.
Speaking at the
Saturday opening, RHI Co-Founder, Guyanese-born Ms. Sandra Shivdat, who,
together with her husband, Mr. Freddie Shivdat, conceptualised the idea,
said the cost so far is US$65,000.
The woman, who
has been living in New Jersey for some 26 years, said they will be
engaged in fund-raising to create a playground, fence the property and
finish a kitchen, while doing maintenance.
She thanked
Montrose Primary School, Lusignan Reunion Organisation and other
contributors for helping to achieve the success.
Shivdat
acknowledged the significant contribution of Food for the Poor (Guyana),
which helped to furnish and equip the place, including providing
computers.
She explained
that, to raise funds from the public in the U.S., RHI was established
but reiterated that the focus is in Guyana.
“This is our
model; we will duplicate it across Guyana in more vulnerable
communities. We believe in literacy first and foremost,” she stated.
Shivdat also
announced that an administrator and two part-time teachers have been
recruited for the centre operations but a group of volunteers will be
assisting with the management.
APPROACHED
She said other
charitable groups, in the U.S, will be approached for assistance.
Shivdat said the children will be taught that they can dream of a better life and encouraged to fight for a future in which they can grow up and make others proud of them.
Children from the Irene Madray Centre
Vice-Consul in
the U.S. Embassy here, Mr. Phillip Assis offered his congratulation and
best wishes on behalf of the entire American nation.
He said: “In
the U.S., education has been valued from the very beginning of our
republic and we believe, very heartily, that it has contributed to our
own growth, both economic and personal, in every way.
“And,
obviously, that is a very clear value in Guyana, as well and I am very
pleased to be here today to share that with you and that we share this
value.”
Executive
Director of Food For the Poor, Mr. Leon Davis lauded the Shivdats for
giving back something to their homeland, primarily the Lusignan and Good
Hope communities from where they hail.
He pointed out
that his organisation is not confined to dealing with the distribution
of foodstuff, clothing and other items but is more than that.
“Our business
is about the poor, providing you are poor and you need help, regardless
of religion, race, political beliefs and so on, we will continue to do
what we are doing,” Davis said.
He said, when
the Shivdats made the approach to him, he was moved to see there are
still Guyanese who live abroad and have faith in this country.
Davis said he
is confident RHI will help develop children to be leaders of tomorrow,
with education being the key to success.
“The answer to
poverty is empowering people and giving them a start and we have been
doing this quite successfully. I would want to feel that, over a number
of years, it is getting bigger.”
He said FFP is
now concentrating on education and medical care and maintained that,
with their housing scheme, developing the lives of the very poor is a
great thing.
About the input at Lusignan, he assured: “This is not the end of our
giving to this community.”
Guest Speaker
and Board Member of RHI, Member of Parliament (MP), Mr. Anil Nandlall
declared it is a privilege for him to be associated with the venture.”
He praised the
Shivdats for their commitment to it, noting that, while they have their
own family and bearing in mind the downturn in the U.S., in spite of
such challenges, they have made a monumental sacrifice.
The Shivdats
have made the building possible, not via telephone and the
instrumentality of a workforce, but being present on a regular basis,
the lawyer said, hoping that more Guyanese overseas can emulate the
couple.
RAMPANT
Nandlall
attested that the communities of Lusignan and Good Hope are where
poverty is rampant and the Shivdats undertook this philanthropic work to
elevate people after seeing what obtains in the streets of the two
villages where so many problems afflict the villagers.
He said he
agrees with the concept because Guyanese, in spite of race, all have a
common history.
“We came to
this country in very similar circumstances with basically nothing and
whatever we have achieved in this land has been made possible largely by
our own efforts,” Nandlall added, agreeing that the vehicle which aids
elevation is education.
“Education is
the key to success and knowledge is power,” he admitted, saying it can
liberate any people and any society from the cycle of poverty.
He posited that
poverty is cyclical and goes round and round unless ways can be found to
extricate oneself from it.
Nandlall said
he is confident the learning facility will afford the young people of
Good Hope and Lusignan the opportunity to exit the cycle of poverty that
has kept millions in bondage worldwide.
Others present
at the function included Alliance for Change (AFC) MP, other
attorney-at-law Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan who joined in commending the grand
efforts of RHI and its partners.
“You have nurtured the ground for the blossoming of a thousand flowers within this area. I want you to continue that nurturing and fertilising. It will do our country a wonderful thing,” he accepted.
From Guyana Times – Monday, July 6th, 2009
New Jersey group opens
learning centre at Lusignan
Restoring Hope International, Inc ( RHI), an organisation founded by a
group of U. S.- based Guyanese on Saturday unveiled a learning centre to
service residents of the East Coast communities of Lusignan and Good
Hope with the aim of alleviating poverty through education.
The project was set up by nine Guyanese based in New Jersey. Its aim is
to give hope to Guyana’s children by helping to build a better tomorrow.
RHI is a registered non- profit organisation established in 2008 to help
fight poverty through education. Its goal is to break the cycle of
despair, and bring hope and optimism to the impoverished families in the
poor areas of Guyana.
Speaking at the opening of the centre, founder and director of the
project, Sandra Shivdat, said the 2005 disastrous fl ood had help create
awareness in the minds of Guyanese living in New York of the need to
give back to their country.
Shivdat added that after a few visits to Guyana, she observed the rate
of illiteracy among children and parents were on the rise in Lusignan
and Good Hope and realised immediate action was needed to address the
problem. She identified parents’ challenges as a result, mainly, of many
being unable to read and write.
Additionally, she observed that parents could not afford to buy uniforms
to send their children to school and to provide a proper meal on the
table resulting in the children’s absence from school.
TURN TO PAGE 13 .
New Jersey group opens learning...
However, the mission of the organisation is to bring literacy to the
forefront of the community and to facilitate the development of
knowledge. It will also place emphasis on the value of education by
implementing innovative programmes to develop children’s cognitive
abilities and teach children the skills to think independently, to be
inquisitive and creative, and to help them develop as individuals who
respect themselves and care about others.
So
far 300 children have been registered to join the centre which caters
for children fi ve years and older. Students attending the programme
will access books, computers, extended activities, counselling
programmes and workshops, after school help and remedial classes.
Also playing a major role in setting up the centre was Food for the Poor
Guyana Inc. Director of the charitable organisation, Leon Davis said, “
Our business is about the poor, regardless of race, religion or
politics”. He said his organisation has so far contributed to two
centres of similar nature on the East Coast Demerara, Cane Grove and
Montrose and is now injecting support to the Lusignan- Good Hope Centre.
Davis noted that Food for the Poor cannot do the work alone since there
is a necessity to develop the minds of children to be leaders of
tomorrow. RHI board member, Attorney at– law Anil Nandlall said
education is one sure way of liberating people from poverty.
Patrina Lakhan, Guyana Times
Help the Children
(August 2008)
This document was written in an effort to share with you a very sad and
disheartening situation in Guyana.
There are many distressing situations there including AIDS, drug
and alcohol abuse, battered women and children and poverty. What I am
about to share with you is primarily about the forgotten class of people
in Guyana:
The Poor.
These are the people with limited personal resources, no
supplemental help and are living at/below the poverty line.
*****
I visited Guyana after the catastrophic flooding in January 2005.
The purpose of that trip was twofold.
First, it was to visit the poor area where the residents have
limited personal resources and try to help them.
And, second, to evaluate the situation of these residents with
emphasis on needs, social problems and find a solution to provide help.
I concentrated on the villages of Good Hope and Lusignan on the
East Coast of Demerara.
Since then I made several more trips, the most recent being the first
week of August 2008. I have
been in constant communication with these people and have spent time
with the parents and their children.
On my first trip, I conducted a door-to-door visit with twenty-five
homes that were at/or below poverty level.
These homes are basically ‘shacks’.
They are approximately 120 sq. ft. in area, unpainted and are
made of rough lumber/second cut slab.
They are about three to four feet off the ground.
I visited these homes because they visually portrayed all the
signs of poverty. I met
with each family was allowed to enter their homes and observed the
condition in which they live and are raising their children.
These households consisted of an average of three children with
ages ranging from fourteen years to two-month old babies.
Some homes have as many as seven children.
What I saw there broke my heart.
I saw the desperation in the mothers’ eyes; I saw the kids with
no teeth (all rotten); I saw the bare floor on which they lay down to
sleep; I saw a cry for help everywhere I looked.
And, I asked myself – how come I never noticed this situation
before? I knew though –
deep down in my heart that these conditions were always there.
Maybe I just did not pay attention; maybe I was too wrapped up in
my life to care; maybe I was just selfish and coldhearted.
Whatever it was – that was yesterday – today I am taking action –
part of which is writing this document and sharing it with you.
At the end of my first trip I promised them that I will return and I
will also do the best I can to help them better their standard of living
and educate their children.
My promise to them was made on the strength of my personal belief that
education is the key to achieving economic freedom.
Therefore, I will work with them to keep their children in school
and get an education. Over
the last three years I did my best to keep that promise and I have seen
some success. However, I
realized that I would not be doing my best if I do not share what
I know with you hoping that the information contained herein will cause
you to react in some way.
How it happened?
During the 1970’s and 1980’s, many countries in the South East Asia,
Africa and the Caribbean experienced severe economic distress.
Guyana was one of those countries.
However, although many of those countries especially in South
East Asia and the Caribbean emerged from those shocks and began a steady
and sustained growth pattern, Guyana continued to experienced
difficulties. Why?
This was due to the ongoing political turmoil in the country that
started a massive brain drain.
The continued loss of its skilled and educated labor force
coupled with the devaluation of its currency pushed Guyana into deeper
economic problems and consequently shifted more and more of its
population into poverty.
In 1993, according to the Guyana’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper
(2001), “43% of the population lived below the poverty line with 29%
living in extreme poverty”.
In 1999, according to same report, “35% of population living below the
poverty line with 19 % living under conditions of extreme poverty”.
What it means to be poor:
The poor in Guyana are people, who received limited or no education,
have no personal resources, no supplemental help and are not equipped
with the tools to earn a decent living.
These people work as unskilled laborers, maids and cane-cutters.
Most of them were born into poverty and are now raising their
children in similar situation.
My research on their wages earned in relation to the current cost
of living index illustrated the losing battle to escape extreme or even
moderate poverty.
The different faces of poverty are prevalent throughout these areas.
Lack of jobs, poorly paid jobs, child labor, illiteracy,
violence, teenage pregnancy, substance abuse (drugs and alcohol), low
self-esteem, lack of knowledge, lack of motivation, and a feeling of
helplessness and dependency are all around.
Poverty is eating a piece of cake and drinking soda only on
Christmas day, joining a
line to receive used clothing and handouts, unable to send your children
to school, living in an overcrowded dilapidated structure, no healthcare
and constant illness from poor diet.
The only hope for the poor is education.
As John Wood, former Microsoft executive and founder of Room to
Read (an international charity working in third world countries), so
powerfully stated in an interview with MSN: “Fight illiteracy and
break the cycle of poverty one child at a time”.
Unfortunately, the poor families in Guyana have difficulties with
that fight. They struggle
with meeting the cost of school supplies, transportation to school,
examination fees, books, meals and other educational requirements. As a
result they are more often forced to keep their children at home.
Poverty and Education
Educational attainment in poor areas is low.
The level of education in poor household is lower than that in
the non-poor household. One
of the main reasons is that the upper middle class and the rich
households send their children to private schools.
Additionally, the non-poor households have the advantage of
parents that are educated or literate enough to help their children at
home.
Over the last three years, I have spent time talking with children ages
4 to 16. I have tested them
in reading, spelling and mathematics.
I was privy to their report cards and their workbooks.
As a result, I have made the following observations with
reference to educating the poor children of Guyana:
1.
Young boys aged seven and above are more often school dropouts mainly
because they have to work to assist in supporting their family.
A drive through several villages allowed me to observe how many
young men under the age of fifteen were selling in the markets, making
concrete blocks, catching fish, working in yards or just loitering on
the streets. I found more
than I expected. Their
response to my question: ‘Why are you not in school?’ was the same: They
need the money to help at home or they cannot afford to go to school.
A few had never attended school.
2.
Parents are highly illiterate and cannot help their children with their
schoolwork. The mothers are
basically responsible for the children’s school attendance.
The husbands are rarely involved.
Parents lack adequate resources to provide lunch, school
supplies, clothes and shoes.
Due to poor home environment, the absence of parental
encouragement, and irregular school attendance the children rarely do
well at school and are more inclined to drop out.
3.
The older children are sometimes needed at home to take care of the
younger kids so that the mothers can work and / or run errands.
In 2005, I visited a home where the mother was suffering from an
enlarged heart and was hospitalized.
As I walked into the yard, I saw her twelve year-old son sitting
in front of an aluminum tub doing laundry.
In the house were his two youngest sisters.
One, a little baby and the other about two years old.
He stayed home from school to take care of his sisters while his
other siblings went to school.
He has since never returned to school.
He recently turned fifteen and is working with a construction
contractor making cement blocks.
Everyday he leaves home at four o’clock in the morning for work.
His future without formal education is mediocre at best.
4.
Education is not a priority issue for a cash strapped government.
“Schoolroom poverty” is widespread among the public schools in
the poor areas.
1 through 4 above is an accepted and real occurrence in the public
schools in the rural / country areas where poverty is apparent and
accepted. This
situation continues because there is no accountability from the parents
all the way to the Ministry of Education. The lack of responsibility at
the school and governmental level of the children’s primary education
paves the way for the parents’ apathetic attitude towards their
children’s learning. This
situation coupled with the parents’ illiteracy and lack of resources
laid the foundation for another generation of poor and uneducated souls.
Thus the cycle continues.
What can we do?
The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:
“Everyone has a right to education”.
Unfortunately education is a distant dream for the impoverished
children of Guyana. The
poor families need support through their quest to invest in their
children’s well being. They
need help to create a stable and comfortable home environment to allow
the children to blossom into healthy and educated adults.
This can only happen if:
ü
The children have free access to educational services
ü
Parents can expand on their (parents) education and skills to earn a
better living or find a way to subsidize current income stream
ü
Parents are empowered to seek and fight for betterment for themselves
and their family
ü
Role models are provided for children and that will build confidence and
self esteem and encourage ambition in children
ü
A community environment is created where the children can interact with
other kids and develop talent and skills
Conclusion
This document was written primarily to spread the word about the
‘forgotten class’ of people in Guyana.
My opinions and observations stated here are made based on what I
saw, information I have gathered during my visits to Guyana and
listening to the stories of the families I met.
I conducted my own research and where I have used third party
information, I referred to the source.
The UNDP, the United Nations (MDG’s) and USAID have published
reports on Guyana. They
have written about Guyana being one of the poorest countries in that
region despite its abundant natural resources; about the low education
level; about the social ills and about the country’s poor governance.
The children need our help.
We need to secure their childhood and allow them to transition from
being children to teenagers to adulthood the way nature intended.
This disheartening cycle of poverty and illiteracy has to stop
and we must give these people some hope.
But most important, it is essential to prevent children from
becoming the next generation of poor and uneducated souls and instead
develop into the bright young minds of the future.
Only then can a country truly prosper.