THE scenic riverine community of Aliki Village has a mixture of people of all ethnicities, making it a very blended village. One such person is Joan Conway, a mother of eight, who is a farmer and has been residing at Aliki for the past 25 years. She is originally from Fort Island, also in the Essequibo River, but relocated many years ago through marriage.

Conway, who was at the Aliki Community Health Centre with one of her sons for medical attention, stated that the people utilise the limited resources they have, but they need some development within the village. For instance, they need a paved walkway because when it rains the place is muddy and very slippery, she said. She is a large-scale ground provision and bananas farmer, who reported that accessing her farm via the creek when the water is high is easier and when it dries up, they have to walk for many miles.

Conway added that her husband and a son would also assist her on the farm and they would take out produce every fortnight at Hubu Koker to be sold. “Quite recently, they had a squall which came with heavy winds and rain which caused all their crops to be flattened and destroyed,” she said. The farmer disclosed that at times the large Mora trees would fall in the creek, making it inaccessible until a chain saw is sourced to cut up the tree to clear the creek for boats to go to the farms.

Conway noted that when the creek is dry she would have to walk about 60 miles to get to her farm; and it is quite a challenge and to top it off, they have an acoushi ants problem which is eating away their crops. “Due to the pandemic things have scaled down a lot and they are unable to travel and are mostly at home and even the children are getting a bit bored,” she said.

Conway has four school-age children and she lives about one and a half miles away from the Aliki Community Health Centre.

The village shop keeper
Meanwhile, another resident, Vibert English, who was engaged in some construction work at his home told the Pepperpot Magazine that he is a farmer, who also has a small shop. The father of six related that the people of Aliki Village are simple and they are very hardworking and spend a lot of time on their farms in the backlands area of the community.

English pointed out that the village needs a bit of a boost in terms of an ICT hub for the schoolchildren to be stimulated, since they have been at home for months now due to the pandemic. “About 50 families live here and we are mostly farmers, who make a living even with many challenges and we try to stay afloat,” he said.

The community teacher
Village teacher Ashane Alli told the Pepperpot Magazine that she is attached to the Aliki Primary School and has been residing there since 2010.

She relocated as a result of marriage and is now a mother of four, who was at the time distributing schoolchildren’s school uniform vouchers of $4,000 per child to parents at the school.

The 29-year-old pointed out that she has a class of 32 pupils and has been reaching out to them at the school in small groups to lend support, while they complete the Ministry of Education worksheets. “After spending two years at the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) I became a qualified teacher patterned after my mother and sister. I fell in love with the job and more so, the simple country life, of the riverine community,” she said.

Alli’s husband is a farmer and he would often hunt and the wild meat is used in the home; he also does some fishing when it is banga season. She reported that the school is multi-grade and last year the secondary students were removed and directed to the Bartica Secondary School.

Alli said that the village needs electricity and potable water supply to enhance their lives and also an ICT hub to boost their learning capacity. From the look of things, even with many shortfalls, Alli is making the most of the resources as a teacher to promote distant learning during the pandemic.