Community business cares about village, residents
– Michel Outridge

Suman Budhram and her husband jointly own and operate two Super Value General Stores and have quietly been doing their bit behind the scenes to assist the community through their hot meals feeding programme and counselling services.

A branch of the store is at Bath Village, West Coast Berbice and the other branch is at Dundee, Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara, which is also the residence of the owners.

Suman Budhram, who is a writer, poet, volunteer, yoga enthusiast and an in-training psychologist is very passionate about spending time with youths and people, who needs someone to talk to.

She does a lot of behind the scenes charity work in the community and would spend her time taking care of people through counselling sessions.

Budhram told the Pepperpot Magazine that in 2016 they opened the Dundee branch and it is also where they reside and have good relations with both customers and the community.

She stated that the branch at Bath Village was just a small shop that was converted into a general store/supermarket and they added the Money Gram section last year.

The businesswoman reported that she is a vegetarian, who practices yoga and meditation and would spend many waking hours writing, she completed two poetry books and is on two others where she is expressing her thoughts of psychology at a glance.

Budhram explained that before COVID-19 they used to give back a lot to the community but haven’t been able to as they should these days because their sales have dropped significantly.

She hosted many senior citizen feeding programmes and over the years as their sales plummeted they had to scale down on some charitable projects.

But they do give back in whatever way they can and has never turned away anyone, who showed up for help.

She explained that there are a lot of social issues in the community among young people and others, at times she would give of her time to counsel troubled minds and offer moral support.

“With the advent of technology, the cellphones have replaced books and other recreational activities in children and youths and it has dominated their minds; so much so they have no time for games and others things to relieve the mind of pent-up frustrations and whatever else is happening in the home,” she said.

Budhram disclosed that she came from humble beginnings and used to walk miles upon miles to school with just a book and pencil, but she didn’t allow her financial situation to direct her life; she studied and utilised her school age to become educated because she wanted to help others and had to get means to do so.

She said that people, no matter what they are going through in their lives, need to be constantly motivated to pick up the pieces and mend them to repair their lives, because they are experiencing many forms of abuse including physical, financial, verbal and emotional.

That’s why she has been counselling people to become motivated through self-care by having them realise their worth and do things to earn and maintain good mental health.

“A lot of young people have ideas and they use their creativity to get things done but they need the extra push to stay motivated and also need someone to talk,” she said.

Budhram related that we have a lot of people with mental health issues and anxiety problems, who doesn’t have a place to go or anyone to talk to.

Without these avenues, some people turn to alcohol, drugs, self-cutting and other things to comfort themselves when things get overwhelming.

She is of the view that a lot of youths feel they have nothing to look forward to, as such, indulge in rogue behaviour and activities, but instead they should be empowered to do things such as learning a skill or benefit from parental guidance due to low self-esteem.

“The sore issue with some people is that they need to be heard and it is driving them to the edge and they act out and it often leads to suicide among other things,” she said.