by Francis Quamina Farrier

THERE WILL most likely be an early Father’s Day this year 2017, if the minister within the Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Karen Cummings, MP, has her way. Ably guided by the new Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence, MP, Special Delivery rooms at the Georgetown Public Hospital Maternity Wing, will most likely come on stream very soon. In these Special Delivery rooms at the Maternity Unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital, fathers will finally be welcome to witness the delivery of their babies. That was something which has never been allowed at that almost 200-year old medical Institution in Georgetown.

My interest and advocacy of the good fathers in Guyana, goes back over 20 years. I commenced this campaign when I noticed that many pastors and social workers, as well as other influential people in the society, were desecrating Father’s Day. For them, Father’s Day was the day when they would go on radio, television and the print media, as well as within houses of worship, and unleash the most vicious attacks on the Guyanese males, who are old enough to be fathers. For them, no one was to be spared; even those fathers who go the extra mile to provide for their off-springs, and would give them quality time. As a matter of fact, the aggressors seem to know of not one single good father in all of Guyana.

Now let me state very early in this feature, that I am not in any way suggesting that there are not bad fathers – in fact, there are just too many very bad fathers. What this feature is all about, is that there is this idea by some misguided souls that Father’s Day is the day to go on the attack on all men. There are 52 Sundays in each year, and just one Sunday set aside to honour and celebrate the good fathers and so it is a shame that Father’s Day is the day when all this venom is unleashed. There are 51 Sundays in each year when the bad fathers can be vilified. My campaign is to save Father’s Day, if you will, from being so misrepresented; even by some well-educated and otherwise good people.

This misrepresentation of Father’s Day in Guyana bothered me so much, that I first sat down with then Head of the Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association, Frederick Cox and had a lengthy in-depth conversation. Most of it was recorded on video camera, and later broadcast on the Television Evening News.
After the passing of Frederick Cox I also had an on-camera interview with his successor at the Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association, Ms. Beverley Braithwaite-Chan. That interview in which, like the previous one, Ms. Braithwaite-Chan agreed with my strong advocacy that Father’s Day should be celebrated specially for the good fathers, and that there should be no mention of bad fathers on that special day. That interview was also broadcast on the Television Evening News.

During the ensuing years, I interviewed a number of other influential individuals, such as Pastor John Smith of the Central Assembly of God, and Pastor Raphael Massiah, of the First Assembly of God, and quite a number of others religious and civil leaders, on the misuse of Father’s Day. At the end of my meeting with Pastor Massiah, he wished me well and used the term “crusade”. What I had previously classified as my “campaign” was elevated to “crusade” by Pastor Massiah.

On Thursday June 18, 2015, I visited the Ministry of Public Health on Brickdam in Georgetown, to have a pre-arranged exclusive interview with Minister of Public Health, Dr. George Norton. The principal issue was that fathers were not permitted to be present at the birth of their children, at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Unfortunately, there was an emergency which Minister George Norton had to go to at Mahaicony and so I was redirected to meet with the Minister within the Ministry, Dr. Karen Cummings. I put my concern to her, that there were many good men who would like to be present at the birth of their babies, but that it was not permitted at the Georgetown Public Hospital, and whether that could change, especially since “CHANGE” was the rallying cry in the country at that time. The very next day, Friday June 19, 2015, Minister Dr. Karen Cummings paid an official visit to the Maternity Unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital. She was wearing long boots as the city was under lots of flood water. The media was invited and the minister’s visit got full coverage.

During that visit, in response to a question which I put to her, Minister KarenCummings promised to have Special Delivery rooms established at the hospital to accommodate those fathers who desire to be present at the delivery of their babies. Since her appointment as Minister of Public Health, I have spoken with the new Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence, who is giving her full support to the project. Last month when on a visit to the Maternity Unit, I was shown the work-in-progress.

So who will be that lucky father to make history as the first father to be welcomed into the Delivery Room at the Georgetown Public Hospital? The Ministry of Public Health has promised to let the nation know via the media. So finally the good fathers of Guyana will be afforded the opportunity, to show their love for the mother of their babies, at that very special time, at the GPH.
They would be afforded the experience to witness the Miracle of Birth of their own babies.