–‘Aunty Shirley’ still can’t believe her good fortune

By Naomi Parris

“I NEVER thought my suffering would end,” said 47-year-old mother of four, Sharda Arjune, also known as ‘Aunty Shirley’ on Wednesday when she received the keys to her spanking new home.
It was a dream come true when Ms. Arjune and her husband Jagdesh Jaggernauth, of Moleson Creek, Corentyne, made their way up the stairs of her new home after living more than 15 years in a shack.

Arjune noted that her family suffered a financial depression after her husband developed a mental disorder, forcing him to remain at home, and her children to have to to seek employment to help make ends meet.
The couple’s youngest son, who is just 14-years-old, has been working as a cattle rancher right in Moleson Creek, where they live, to earn an honest dollar and support his parents. Ms Arjune, on the other hand,
would take up a few odd jobs to make ends meet, but most of her time she would spend at home, caring for her husband.
Finding funding for the family’s new fully-furnished home was spearheaded by Rozanna Mohamed, founder of the Rose for Relief Foundation, with the aid of several generous donors.

The story of ‘Aunty Shirley’ first came to light when Mohamed was distributing hampers to single mothers and the elderly, who, in her opinion, were the most affected by the COVID-19 fallout.

One of her recipients was the very ‘Aunty Shirley’, and when she saw the conditions under which the family was living, Ms. Mohamed was so shocked she was moved to tears.

Realising that time was of the essence, she immediately sprang into action and started a campaign to rebuild Aunty Shirley’s house, and with the support of kind friends, families and local businesses, she and her team of helpers were able to get the job done within three weeks of discovering the family’s plight.
“We had to get the resources and build as fast as we can, because Aunty Shirley’s living condition was indeed unlivable, and very, very undignified. I wish we could have done this faster,” Ms. Mohamed said.

Her NGO’s mandate, she explained, is to provide a caring and dignified living for those who are in unfortunate situations, and building ‘Aunty Shirley’ a new home, which was their first ever project, is testimony to that.

While speaking the Guyana Chronicle, Ms. Mohamed seized the opportunity to thank all her donors, both here and in the diaspora, as well as local businesses and those volunteers who stepped forward to make the project possible. “This is not the end, but the beginning of building a more caring and dignified Guyana,” she said, adding: “I was proud to be inspired by ‘Aunty Shirley’.”

Since the birth of ‘Rose for Relief’, Mohamed has received tons of requests for help from all across the country, from medical cases, to needing food, to rebuilding houses, to helping small businesses, children’s needs and more.

“There is very little or no help and opportunities for poor and vulnerable people in Guyana, and the need is enormous and getting bigger every day,” she said, adding: “And I plan on changing that.”