I WRITE to applaud the several overseas-based Guyanese and organisations that have been making hefty donations to fund worthwhile (in particular medical) causes in our beloved nation without consideration to the race and religion of the beneficiaries. Over the years, Guyana has been the beneficiary of the kindness of Guyanese in the diaspora who have been donating generously to several charitable causes in their former homeland through various organisations and individually.
Every year, millions of (American) dollars have been pouring into the country from overseas-based Guyanese for various worthwhile projects relating to health, housing, education and culture.  Large amounts of the donations are from Hindus and Indo-Guyanese of other religious backgrounds.  Yet Indians are often the subjects of ridicule and abuse in Guyana and have been targeted for violence with some attackers even telling Indians to go back to India (despite the some 173 years that they have established roots in the country).
But these threats and the nimakharamism don’t discourage Guyanese in the diaspora from helping to fund charitable projects in their former homeland as Guyanese in the diaspora from all ethnic backgrounds remain committed to their homeland, ignoring those who seek to divide us for political ends.
My nanny used to tell me there are people who would eat your food and then bust your head with the plate you furnished them. So donors have to learn to ignore these ‘nimakharams’.
Most recently, the Toronto-based Guyanese Voice of Vedas, a Hindu group, raised almost Cdn$50,000 that was donated to the renal Dialysis Care unit at the Georgetown Hospital slated to open soon.
This would not have been possible without the kind heartedness of those Guyanese-Canadian Hindus and others who contributed the funds.
The Voice of the Vedas Cultural Sabha of Toronto has contributed enormously to Guyana in this and other projects. Dr. Budhendranauth Doobay, spiritual leader of the Mandir, undertook fund-raising programmes so that Guyanese can receive better health care.  Dr. Doobay and VOV made the mission their priority and most Guyanese, non-Indians included, are grateful. The photos of the different backgrounds of the recipients show a grateful people. Thank you Doctor-ji and Voice of Vedas! Don’t pay heed to those who don’t have any sense of gratitude.
Another beneficiary of recent Guyanese generosity is the paediatric unit of the Georgetown Hospital worth thousands of US dollars.
Help the Kids of Toronto, headed by Dr Narendra Singh, are working in collaboration with the Guyana government and UG to decrease infant mortality. The organisation donated funds to upgrade the Neonatal Unit at the hospital with incubators and monitors, and has been working on complementing this with biomedical and respiratory care support. The organisation also plans to extend support to the New Amsterdam and Linden Hospitals, and other regional health centres – they don’t look at ethnicity, unlike some in Guyana, but at helping humanity.
Thank you Narendra-ji and the members of your group for your humanitarian endeavours.
Another recent donor is the Vigneshwar Mandir of Brooklyn led by Pandit Mulchan of Mahaica. The Mandir raised tens of thousands of American dollars from among Hindus and donated G$ millions of dollars to projects and centres in Guyana without thinking about the racial and religious background of the beneficiaries. The Georgetown orphanage and the Ptolomy Reid Centre, among others, were the main beneficiaries with hundreds of thousands of dollars in Hindu donations.
The Federation of Arya Samaj of America also donated millions for the orphanage in Guyana and schools throughout the coast. A school in an African Village on the West Coast received holiday toys to uplift the spirit of the kids.  This writer, Vishnu Bisram, himself carried two suitcases of candies from the N.Y Arya Samaj last Christmas that were distributed at the orphanage and schools. The Arya Samaj, through President Vishnu Bandhu, also donated a wheel chair to an Afro-Guyanese in Vreed-en-Hoop.  Pandit Sugrim’s New Jersey Arya Samaj donated millions of dollars to several non-Indian groups throughout Guyana.
And who can forget the generosity of George Sobhraj and his family for all they have done for Guyana in education, health, culture, etc. – valued in hundreds of thousands in American dollars annually. No one and no organisation donates as much as they do.
Although these donations are made by poor hard-working overseas Indo-Guyanese, some individuals would like to see Indians removed from Guyana and would prefer not to have a hospital built for free from the generosity of India and manned by Indian expertise. As my nanny used to say, they rather suck salt. These characters should be ignored for playing on race. We must laud the contributions of overseas Guyanese of all ethnic backgrounds and encourage them to continue with their generosity and even donate more to worthwhile causes irrespective of the racial or religious backgrounds of the beneficiaries.