PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo has decreed that children should be given priority over and above any other consideration.  Human Resources and Social Security Minister, Priya Manickchand has driven many protective legislations to ensure that even the most basic rights of the vulnerable in society, especially the children, are enshrined in law; but neither the President nor the Minister can micro-manage every facet of the protective, empowering and developmental mechanisms they have put in place to ensure that they function effectively. Hence, many are falling through the cracks in society because of bungling by officials, either through illusions of grandeur, lackadaisicalness, dishonest transactions, or plain don’t-care-a-damn attitudes.
In 2005, four GuySuCo (Guyana Sugar Corporation) workers were among the several persons who either disappeared or were publicly slain aback Buxton during what Tacuma Ogunsye and other opposition leaders dubbed ‘The Buxton Resistance’, but which, in effect, was a crime wave that created unimaginable suffering in that community and the rest of the country, with many innocent victims in and out of Buxton still enduring the consequential effects of that horrific period in the country’s history.  The ripple effect of that horrendous episode in Guyana has left many traumatized and devastated victims in its aftermath.
Last Thursday, the Guyana Chronicle spoke to the widows of two of the GuySuCo employees who disappeared without a trace, and the saga of suffering they related seems unending, primarily because of the irreplaceable loss caused them through the wanton slaying of their life partners, compounded by the actions of insensitive and power-drunk public officials.

No bodies; no benefits
Unable to prove their husbands dead because their bodies were never recovered, these women were deprived of NIS and other benefits; and although GuySuCo and the NIS (National Insurance Scheme) stand on legal ground on this issue, these were circumstances out of the norm, and should have been exempted from the stipulated framework.  However, one hopes that when the mandatory seven years have expired and their husbands are declared legally dead, the women will receive all that was due them and their children, retroactive to seven years ago.  And, given the travesty that often passes for justice, these four women should get legal counsel from some caring lawyer, who does not place money above human considerations, to ensure they receive their due.
These women are simple, uneducated women who can only find jobs as maids.  Both of them said that the transition from beloved housewives who ran their own homes, for which their devoted husbands adequately provided, to cleaning other people’s homes was very painful and traumatic, as was leaving their children alone for the first time — rendering them, for all practical purposes, fatherless and motherless.
Despite being single for over six years, both women, still young and attractive, are adamantly opposed to forming relationships with another partner, and both vehemently stated that, given the horror stories of atrocities committed on children by stepfathers, they would never subject their children to the emotional and psychological trauma of seeing another man take their father’s place — either in their lives, or their homes.
On May 21, 2005, when 35-yr-old Sampersaud Taranauth failed to return home from his worksite aback Buxton, his worried wife, Kamini, contacted her brother-in-law, Kamo Persaud, also a GuySuCo employee, who mounted a search, only to discover Sampersaud’s bicycle and lunch bag, with visible signs of a struggle and drag marks nearby.  Kamini said she’d stood on her street in Enterprise and witnessed a large fire aback Buxton that very afternoon, but, because her husband’s body was never retrieved, there has been no legal resolution, leaving her small family hanging financially.

Public Assistance withdrawn
The Public Assistance she was receiving for her three little daughters was discontinued, but, through the intervention of Minister Manickchand, this was restored.  What helps Kamini is that she is living rent-free in the home of a relative, and ekes out a living doing part-time housework for persons living in the community.
Her daughters, Sunita, Elizabeth, and Divya were five years old, three years old, and six months old respectively when their loving father disappeared, and they’d all cried inconsolably at his loss; even baby Divya, whom he rocked to sleep every afternoon in the hammock.  Eldest daughter, Sunita, who is now eleven, currently attends the Hindu College, under the personal supervision of the Principal, Ms Rajkumarie Singh, who Kamini says is very strict but extremely kind and caring, and takes a personal interest in the welfare of her charges.  Mrs. Leila Ramson is Sunita’s sponsor at the school.
Four months after the Taranauths lost a husband, father, and breadwinner, two other GuySuCo workers disappeared at the same location; one of them was Sookram (Rohit) Dhanai, whose widow, Padmawattie (called Sherry), the Guyana Chronicle also spoke with.
But despite Minister Manickchand instructing that the children of the four GuySuCo victims be given Public Assistance until they reach eighteen, the service was discontinued when eldest daughter, Shelly was thirteen, and only son, Terry, was 14.  Public Assistance was also discontinued, since July of last year, for the youngest child, Sharon, who is now 10 years of age.  Because Sherry could only find work as a maid in Georgetown, which incurs transportation costs, she was forced to withdraw her two older children from school.  She said that every time she tries to speak to the resource person in charge of Public Assistance in her area, the woman  becomes highly-abusive, making her (Sherry) afraid to approach her. 
President Jagdeo continually speaks of the ‘tin gods’ in the public service who treat members of the public with great disdain and disrespect.  They proliferate in public institutions, and often bring to naught the Government’s attempts to empower the vulnerable.  People living in rural areas are simple persons, who are afraid to approach public officials because of their customary discourteous behaviour.

Falling through the cracks
Sometime in 2010, the Guyana Chronicle had highlighted the plight of Angela Beepat, a young mother who had contracted HIV from her husband, who had then abandoned her.  Her relatives had also ostracized her, and she could not find work in the rural community of Cane Grove.  She created a home for her five children in an abandoned little shack that was leaning precariously to one side, and tried to provide them with the basics and an education.  She papered the wall with newspaper, and tried to stop the leaks with plastic.
Meals for her family were prepared on four bricks that made up a ‘chulha’ aback the shack, which was always scrupulously clean, as were the children.  Her only help came from devotees of the Cane Grove mandir.
One Mr. Ramgobin, a businessman from Leonora, offered to build a house for Angela and her children if land could have been provided her.
Housing Minister, Irfaan Ali promised her a house-lot.  One Dr. Abdullah promised her medical care; but she could not obtain Public Assistance from the Ministry. If there is anyone that ever needed public assistance, it was Angela and her children, and one wonders at the criteria the ‘tin gods’ use to determine the level of needs of the vulnerable in society.
Minister Manickchand says that staff are instructed to ensure that the society’s children do not fall through the cracks, but there are many reports that ministry officials are listing relatives and friends, and those from whom they receive favours, many of whom are not in need, rather than genuine cases.
There is much disbursement of funds for HIV/AIDS-related activities, but how much of these monies trickle down to the actual victims, such as Angela Beepat and her children?
Many times Angela frantically called me because the owners were attempting to throw her off the property, and she desperately wanted to house her children and leave them with some degree of security and, most importantly, a shelter, where they could be together.  Many times she did not have the wherewithal to provide the basic amenities for her children.
In December, RPA General-Secretary, Dharamkumar Seeraj, and I put together a package of money, toys, clothing, etcetera with which to surprise Angela.  Seeraj went to deliver the gifts to the Beepat family before Christmas, but found no one home.
He returned the next week and was informed by neighbours that Angela had died shortly before Christmas.  Her children were scattered to the winds, and no-one knew of their welfare or whereabouts.  When Bibi Seeraj informed me of Angela’s passing, I felt like someone had punched me in the heart.  I lie awake at nights thinking of Angela’s unnecessary and untimely passing.  It is a well-known fact that stress, improper nutritional intake, and an erratic medication regime can cause deceleration in the condition of those who have contracted the dreaded virus; and most times, Angela could not have afforded proper meals or transportation costs to attend the clinic regularly.  The stress came with the territory of the way she lived, but was exacerbated by the insensitivity of uncaring public officials.
Like Angela’s children, Sherry’s are also victims of the system.  Because their education was forcibly curtailed, Shelly augments the family income by selling aerated beverages from home, while Terry does odd jobs at a cousin’s workshop, which earns him a pittance as a stipend.  Shelly says she would like to learn cake decorating and hair-styling and start a business, but does not have access to, or the wherewithal for, training, while Terry would like to become a mechanic.
Sherry says that the grief at envisioning what her children’s future would be, as opposed to what their loving and devoted father had planned for them, is an enduring one.

Lives at a standstill
She recalls the day her husband disappeared as a day when her family’s life came to a standstill, because all celebrations ceased since then, for the light and joy seem to have gone out of their lives.  Describing the reaction of family members on that fateful day, when life turned eternally dark for them, Sherry says that then nine-year-old Shelly flung herself down and crawled all over the yard, pulling out the grass and screaming in agony, while she herself was falling to pieces inside the house, and ten-year-old Terry was crying his eyes out in his uncle’s arms. 
The financial demands are many, and currently, both Kamini and Sherry’s eldest daughter, Shelly, need glasses because of problems with their vision.  Sherry says that Shelly is plagued with bouts of unendurable headaches that cause her to burrow her head in the pillows and scream in pain, which suggests the need for a CAT scan. But who will provide the wherewithal for these needs?
The facilitators of the President’s recently-launched ‘One Laptop’ programme should look at the needs of the families of victims of the crime wave, including the children of police and Donna Herod.  Kamini’s elder daughter, Sunita, is now in high school.  Sherry’s youngest daughter, Sharon, soon will be.  A laptop will help with their research for school assignments, among other things.
Beasts in the jungle kill for food, but only the beasts in human form know why they wantonly take the lives of innocent human beings, on whom the welfare and fate of so many others depend.
Those beasts often cause shame and pain to those who love them; although some relatives encourage such activities for gain.
Today, there is a movement by some right-thinking Guyanese who are merging efforts to halt and reverse that trend so that the soul of the nation can be healed; so even if the souls of the Kaminis and Sunitas, and the Shellys and Sherrys are too traumatised for healing in their lifetimes, maybe Guyana’s future generations would be spared such turmoil caused by a bestial few divisionists in the land.  The wolves are still baying at the door of reconciliation; but the guardians of the nation are steadfastly refusing them entry.