THE Wisroc Health Centre is a small building that provides employment for 23 staffers and serves a large catchment area. The compact building has a pharmacy, the doctor’s office, a dressing room, triage area, kitchen, waiting area, dentistry department and a defunct rehabilitation room.

The catchment area for Wisroc Health Centre is from Block 22, Wisroc, Blueberry Hill, Andy’s Ville and Prosville. The doctor-in-charge is Dr Jamaine Thomas, a mild-mannered young man from Kwakwani, who seems to be the friendliest, down-to-earth head of the facility.

The services provided at the Wisroc Health centre are in and out-patient services, infant clinic, postnatal and antenatal clinics, diabetic and hypertensive clinic, vaccination clinic, family planning and home visits.

Dr Thomas told the Pepperpot Magazine that he has been at the public health facility since January 2, 2017, and the experience has been rewarding since they have good relations with the community.

“The people here are very cooperative and you can talk to them on a one-on-one basis in terms of their health issues and be frank with them for them to preserve life,” he said. The doctor added that they have the PMTCT programme and the dentistry department and they strive for excellence in providing good quality health care to the people, free of cost.

“We serve a lot of people and on any given day, dozens of people pass through the facility and it has become over-crowded and there is a need for an extension of the building to accommodate patients, especially when there is [sic] certain clinic days,” he said.

He stated that the rehabilitation room has been inactive for the past three years. The Wisroc Health Centre was constructed in 2014 and presently additional resources are being sought to boost the services provided.

Yvonne Hope, one of the oldest residents in Wisroc
Yvonne Hope will be celebrating her 73rd birth anniversary in May and she is excited about that milestone.

She is one of the respected elders in the community who is from Union, West Coast Berbice, but settled in Linden when her husband moved there for work in the bauxite industry.

The grandmother of five stated that after marriage to Lawrence Hope, he returned to Union Village to take her with him to Linden in 1969.

She added that back then she was eager to start her marraige life and away she went leaving her home village and family behind but today, she is very happy to have her own home in Wisroc, a well-kept place with a yard of flowers, plants and a vegetable garden.

The mother of five related that she lived a good life in Wisroc but her husband, Lawrence Hope, passed away nine years ago, after suffering a stroke.

Hope’s children are all grown and they have all moved out of the home and they have their own houses in Wisroc including, her engineer daughter.

These days, Hope is contented caring for her flower plants and she would spend the entire morning just tending to them and would take a rest and after she would begin daily chores and do her cooking.

“Anywhere I go I would ask for a piece of plant or buy it and that’s how my flower garden grew to what it is today with so many potted plants and I have a variety and I enjoy spending time taking care of my plants,” she said.

Living alone has advantages, because she encouraged all her children to get out and get their own land and houses and that’s how she became one of the pioneers of the New Housing Scheme in Wisroc.

“My children were grown and as a good parent I wanted them to move out and get their own, so we started the self-help project and that’s how the new scheme was established,” she said.

Hope disclosed that Wisroc is a quiet village where people live in peace and they look out for each other and there are no thieves so things can be left unattended at any given time. She added these days she is taking things easy and doing what she loves the most, that is, caring for her plants and spending time with her children and grandchildren