EIGHT –YEAR- OLD Martina Persaud, one of the six children who died in a tragic road accident on the Burma Road last week Friday along with their schoolteacher will be cremated tomorrow Sunday according to Hindu rites.On Friday, Ronald Persaud, the father of the dead young girl told this newspaper that a funeral service will be held at their Lot 70 Burma residence following viewing and then to Goedfaith Mahaicony seashore for the cremation at 13:00hrs.
Meanwhile, the Woolford and Fraser children are expected to be laid to rest on Monday, provided the family completes all relevant documentation on time. Viewing is also expected to be done at their homes before the burial.
Based on what this newspaper was told, the Abels are expected to be interred on Wednesday, while the teacher will be laid to rest on Saturday.
Education officials are expected to be in attendance at all the funerals and following final sending off of all the victims, the village is expected to have a memorial service sponsored by the regional officials of Region 5.
The memorial was agreed upon by the relatives of the deceased as against a one-night wake for everyone, since the arrangements for funerals were on different days.
The seven persons were killed following a tragic incident on Friday last when the car the school teacher was driving with her six students ended up in a canal along the Burma Road. Post-mortems which were performed on the remains of the children and their teacher found that they all died from drowning.
The children and the teacher were at the time returning from a regional Mashramani event which had been organised by the regional education department. The death of the children and teacher has reduced the student population of the school from 15 to eight and its teaching staff from three to two.
Immediately after the incident, the Education Minister, Prime Minister and Works Minister visited the community of Mahaicony, where they met with the relatives and villagers who had gathered at the Mahaicony Hospital to mourn the loss of the seven persons.
The following day, Opposition Leader David Granger and President Donald Ramotar visited the homes of all those who perished in the so far unexplained incident.
The Government of Guyana has made several commitments to assist the relatives in dealing with the tragedy which they were clearly not prepared for.
At the time of the accident, the Ministry of Public Works was carrying out works on the road which the residents had protested over days before. The road was also visited by the President and the Minister of Works one week before the accident as they sought to check on the quality of works which were under way. (Leroy Smith)