A mother’s prayer is answered
THE prayers of the anxious, tearful mother of three-year-old Safuna Lewis, stricken with a rare disease of the eye, and needing urgent cash to offset medical procedure in order to save her right eye, have been answered. An appeal made to the public through this newspaper on Tuesday , stated that the infant had already lost vision in the left eye, and an initial sum of G$20,000 was needed for an urgent medical intervention which would entail ‘freezing’ of a lump in the eye, in order to restrict its growth.
When the story broke on Wednesday, just hours after the Guyana Chronicle was off the press, this newspaper which had come to know of the operations of the New Jersey Arya Samaj Mandir Inc. (NJASM), a North American-based Humanitarian Organisation working with less fortunate persons in Guyana, contacted its President, Pandit Suresh Nauth Sugrim, who is currently undertaking humanitarian work here.
Touched by the plight of the child and her mother, Zureena Lewis of Sophia Squatting Area, Greater Georgetown, Pandit Sugrim immediately consented to donate the sum of G$20,000 requested, and said his organisation is willing to contribute any further help needed to help save the child’s sight.
Both Pandit Sugrim and the mother, along with the suffering child Safuna, immediately set out for the Chronicle, Lama Avenue, meeting each other for the first time.  A simple presentation was made witnessed by a few members of staff of the Editorial Department.
Excited beyond words, but trying with difficulty to conceal her emotions, the child’s mother, stressed and literally ‘burnt out’, slumped down into a chair, clutching tenaciously to her child, as if to suggest ‘it was too good be true’.
First thanking God, and then Pandit Sugrim and the organisation, she related that she had spent many anxious nights, hoping and praying for the best, but dreading the very thought that her child may one day lose sight in the other eye if help did not come along quickly.
Ms. Lewis recalled that when baby Safuna was just about six weeks old she detected that there was an abnormality in the child’s left eye and took her to Dr. George Norton, who confirmed that something was seriously wrong with the eye, but that it was too late to save the sight. Subsequent visits were made to the Georgetown Public Hospital and the Ministry of Health, with a view to getting assistance for the child to travel abroad, but things did not materialize.
She said she recently learnt of an eye surgeon, Dr. Bala, who is expected in Guyana from the United States of America on August 2nd. She said arrangements were being made for that doctor to carry out the ‘freezing’ procedure.  In the meantime, she was told to accumulate the sum of about G$76,000 for the child to have a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan done.  After that scan was done, Lewis said, she was advised by an eye specialist representing Dr. Bala, to raise the money for the next procedure to be done by the doctor who is expected in the country soon.
Asked whether she was assured that the medical intervention would be successful, and whether that was all that was needed for the child, the woman said she hoped so. She said that no mention was made of having her child sent abroad for medical intervention.
She said she was told by the doctor that if the problem – whatever it is, had spread to the brain, then that would have constituted a problem. However, if it has not gone that far, then the planned intervention would be sufficient for her.
“But it seems to me, it is like a cancer and every month it is developing, but the doctor said that when he starts to treat it, it will come small”, Lewis lamented. So far, the doctors have not given a name for the child’s condition which, at one stage appeared to be retinoblastoma (a rare childhood cancer of the eye).
“Our resources are limited, but whatever I can do to help her, I will be more than happy to because this child is young and has a whole life ahead of her and it is my pleasure to give her a better tomorrow,” Sugrim said.
Lewis said that since the story was broken yesterday, she has received a few calls from persons making pledges, but the New Jersey Arya Samaj’s donation was the first cash donation she received.
The NJASM executed its first humanitarian mission in Guyana, in July-August 2005. So far they have worked with the Berbice Central Arya Samaj (Regional Branch of the Guyana Central Arya Samaj) in reaching out to the less fortunate children in orphanages in the County of Berbice, Guyana.
With the current visit of Pandit Sugrim and his son Staff Sergeant Yogeshwar Sugrim, 29 of the United States Army, who arrived in the country a few weeks ago, they have been able to achieve much, building capacity with other NGO’s such as Food for the Poor and holding several Empowerment workshops for young people around the country.  Their most recent outreach has been to the community of Windsor Forest, West Coast Demerara, last Saturday, which was graced by the presence of Prime Minister, Samuel Hinds. Yogeshwar has since returned to the United States of America.
While here the organization will also give out hampers to senior citizens, but have been urging young adults to seek empowerment, learning life skills, and being lest dependent on hand outs.
As the saying goes, “Give me a fish and I’ll eat for a day, but teach me to fish and I’ll eat for a lifetime,” he asserted.
The Arya Samaj which mobilises assistance from fellow Guyanese living and working in the United States of America undertakes social and charitable works – the basic hallmark of Hinduism and the Arya Samaj movement, Pandit Sugrim outlined. He added that, unlike the common perception that Hinduism is based on rituals and only seek to spread spirituality, the teachings of Hinduism is based on the principle of sew or service to humanity. These will include the orphans, people in poverty, disadvantaged widows, disaster struck victims, battered women and children irrespective of race and ethnic origin.