DURING the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic many non-governmental organisations have stepped up to join the fight against the virus, and to assist families and households who find themselves in troubling situations due to the impact of the health crisis.

Mommy’s Corner, a non-governmental organisation, has been working around the clock to bring relief to the less fortunate and abused women during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Secretary of Mommy’s Corner, Tammisyn Johnson-Cameron, said the organisation was established last year with the aim of providing assistance to single mothers and abused women. Due to the negative impact COVID-19 is having on the financial and commercial sectors, the organisation opted to offer some assistance by distributing hampers and facemasks to as many vulnerable families as possible so as to cushion the impact.

According to Johnson-Cameron, over the past month the organisation embarked on several rescue missions, the most recent being one where it was able to remove an elderly woman from an abusive home to a safer residence.

Johnson-Cameron noted that the organisation had received calls about the woman who was severely beaten and was in dire need of medical attention due to the injuries she received. She noted Mommy’s Corner was able to seek medical assistance for the woman as well as remove her from the abusive home she was residing in.
Additionally, the organisation targeted a number of rural communities and squatting areas.

“Some of the areas that we visited were Django Town that was a part of Mon Repos. There are about 50 houses, each house you have from five to seven persons living in there and you would find people living in shacks, some with plastic, some with zinc which is not healthy,” she said.

She added that many of the families in that particular area have suffered some kind of financial strain due to the loss of jobs and work not being available making it difficult to provide for their families.

“They have been out of jobs, some of them [who are vendors]  due to COVID-19 haven’t been able to go out and make trips and sell because of being confined to their living quarters so we put together 30 hampers and we went into that area,” she said.

Johnson-Cameron also related that the organisation has managed to make donations in several villages in Berbice, along the East Coast corridor and will be soon heading to the West Coast corridor to assist a number of families.