LOCAL priest and author Vanrick Beresford will be celebrating 40 years of being an author with a biography of his mother, Sukhraji.

Beresford, who has been the pastor of the Maranatha Ministries International on Quamina Street, Cummingsburg for almost 20 years, has already completed 95 per cent of the book.    “It is hoped that the various institutions of learning within the Caribbean will seize the opportunity to make good use of this historical material, to preserve the knowledge and information that is chronicled within its volumes,” Beresford said during a visit to the Guyana Chronicle on Wednesday.

He wants to highlight the life of his mother, whom he said worked hard to raise him and his two brothers under very poor circumstances. “Her father is from Calcutta, India, and she worked as a child labourer.

At just 10-years-old, she was working at Skeldon Sugar Estate,” he said, adding:    “A woman of such indomitable faith and amazing strength should not be easily forgotten.”     Thus, the author with a touch of divinity spelt out the challenges, rewards, opportunities and work associated with her strength of character.

“I hope to accomplish communicating with the next generation; the third generation, and connecting with the children of labourers, both in the diaspora and locally,” he said.