TODAY marks eight years since two sugar workers, Maikhram Sawh also known as Bharat, 46, of Section ‘B’ Non Pareil and Sampersaud Taranauth called “Shammie”, 37, of Fernandes Street, Enterprise, East Coast Demerara, went missing while on duty.

The men were employed by the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) and left their respective homes to go to work but never returned.
The two sugar workers, who were the sole breadwinners for their families, mysteriously disappeared on May 21, 2005 while cleaning a GuySuCo drainage canal aback the then violence-prone East Coast Demerara village of Vigilance.
It has been exactly eight distressing years since the two men’s puzzling disappearance in the hazardous  East Coast backlands.

Wife of Maikhram Sawh, Jaswanttie, yesterday during an interview with the Guyana Chronicle said that all hopes of her husband ever returning home has faded and she has come to the realisation that he is no more.
However difficult to accept, she knows that he will never return home and has learnt to cope with the loss.

AWAITING COMPENSATION
The woman said that she is still awaiting word from GuySuCo about compensation since she had a meeting with officials early this year and they promised to telephone, noting that after seven years she would receive some sort of monetary payout.
Jaswanttie Sawh was, however, thankful to Bibi Shadick (former Minister of Human Services and Social Security) who assisted her in securing some documents, including her husband’s Death Certificate, his National Insurance Scheme (NIS) benefits and some papers for her property.
She explained that Shadick was very instrumental and she appreciates the gesture because, since her loved one disappeared not many persons had come  forward to offer any assistance.
The grieving woman added that she supports herself by tending to a kitchen garden in her yard and she sells the produce but within recent times she became ill and is unable to do much gardening.
Jaswanttie Sawh told the Guyana Chronicle that to date they haven’t had closure since his body was never found nor did they receive any ransom call.
She stated that over the years no telephone calls came as to his whereabouts and hope of ever seeing him alive again dimmed significantly because they are unsure of what happened to him.
Meanwhile, Taranauth’s wife, Kamini was not at home yesterday when the Guyana Chronicle visited her home.
She is left to tend to three school-aged daughters and supports them by doing ‘domestic’ work three days per week.
Kamini too is yet to receive her husband’s benefits.
At 06:00hrs on  May 21, 2005, in Enterprise Village, on the East Coast of Demerara, young housewife Kamini Taranauth said goodbye to her husband, GuySuCo employee Sampersaud Taranauth, as he left for work in the backlands of the neighbouring village, Buxton, during a very turbulent period in Guyana’s history. He never returned home, neither did another associate with whom he worked, Maikhram Sawh.
Kamini became worried when her husband did not return home for lunch at midday, which he never failed to do, and she called her brother-in-law, Mr. Kamo Persaud, who, together with other GuySuCo personnel, mounted a search for the missing man, with no success. Only his bicycle and breakfast bag were retrieved from the scene of his disappearance; but highly visible were drag marks leading into the bushes of the Buxton backdam.
Kamini recalled that she stood on the street outside of her home that very afternoon and witnessed a huge fire aback of Buxton. Until today, because no body was found, there is no legal resolution to her plight and she is left alone to fend for her three daughters who were just aged five years, three years, and six months, when their very loving and hard-working father, who always tended to their needs, disappeared from their lives.