Minister Webster offers immediate assistance, promises to do more
THE husband and relatives of the late Valerie Henry yesterday met with a team from the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security, when immediate assistance and interventions for the family was discussed.
Meeting with the family were Minister of Human Services and Social Security Jennifer Webster, Permanent Secretary Lorene Baird, and Director of Social Services Whensworth Tanner. The ministry’s team expressed sympathy to the family of the deceased, while acknowledging that the death of the mother of nine was indeed unfortunate.
Valerie Henry collapsed and died on Wednesday evening after the police opened fire in C Field, Sophia, to scare off young men who were liming on a bridge.
A post mortem yesterday revealed that Henry died of hemorrhage due to hypertension.
Minister Webster told Stanley Henry, the dead woman’s husband, that her ministry will pay for the funeral. The man explained that it was his wife who was the breadwinner of the home, since his employment status was not stable. He explained that he worked occasionally on construction jobs.
The minister said that the children would be put on the list for assistance to take care of school expenses, including travelling. Four of the nine children are at school.

Minister Webster offered to assist Mr. Henry through her ministry in finding a permanent job so that he will be in a position to care for his children. Yesterday, the minister also issued the family with an amount of cash to facilitate their moving around at this time to deal with matters of the funeral, as well as providing the children with meals.
The Minister had indicated her ministry’s intentions to engage the Education Ministry to secure a transfer for the children to attend a school close to where they live. The minister encouraged the father to keep in contact with her office and inform the ministry of what are the added needs of the children.
Immediately after receiving the assistance from the minister, Stanley Henry expressed his gratitude to the minister and her team.
Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle last night, a daughter of the dead woman, Oreann Henry, expressed deep hurt as the police failed to render assistance to the woman after she collapsed, despite the cries of her children and others in the area.
It was reported that the police had informed the family members that taking the woman to the hospital was not their job and that the family should instead use mentholated spirits to revive the woman.
In recounting what transpired that night, the woman’s daughter told the Guyana Chronicle that she was in the shop along with her mother when a police vehicle drove up and stopped at the nearby school bridge.
The woman said that the next thing they heard was rapid gunfire, and immediately her mother held her head and fell to the ground.