Dear Editor,

GUYANESE and Canadian-Americans are responding to the COVID spike in Guyana. The Guyanese diaspora is mobilising support and is seeking assistance from anyone who can donate whatever they can to help. Many are responding to help their kin.

New York-based community leader Vishnu Mahadeo, with support from others in Queens, has responded to Guyana’s COVID emergency needs by shipping supplies of items to combat the virus. There has been a spike of COVID cases in Guyana – some 17K cases and 400 deaths.
Mahadeo sent anti-COVID combatant items a few weeks ago that have already arrived in Guyana. Another container is due to arrive in Guyana on June 5.

Among the items are some 25K face masks, sanitisers, condoms, books, bed- sheets, diapers, bedliners, and PPE coats, among other items.  Some of the masks will be shared with the Guyana Cancer Society.

Mr. Mahadeo has also been very active in New York combating COVID among the greater Richmond Hill area that has the highest incidence of COVID cases in America. He has been the most active participant in combating COVID among New Yorkers. He has organised and coordinated COVID testing in Richmond Hill as well as vaccinations for Guyanese and other Caribbean people; he has also distributed groceries to the public.

Mahadeo has been successful in having a mobile COVID-testing van posted at Smokey Park and 124th Street and 95th Ave during the day. Testing and vaccination are free.

Separately, a group of Guyanese-Canadians are responding to the COVID situation in Guyana.  Frank Fernandes, Julian Randy, Cliff Rajkumar, and Ken Singh are among willing donors collaborating to address some of the shortages to combat COVID in Guyana to keep people safe. Cliff Rajkumar in Toronto appealed for help for “The kith and kin in our country of birth and beloved homeland.”

As Rajkumar noted, the spike in COVID cases in Guyana is very alarming and Guyanese can do well with the help.

He says that Guyana can do well with every type of PPE, hand sanitisers, masks, and other preventative supplies to help arrest and control this wretched virus. The daily death count has risen sharply and is cause for concern among Guyanese in the diaspora, who respond with generosity whenever there is an emergency in their former homeland.

Cliff feels that Guyanese must rise to the occasion as “our brother keepers to treat the least among us with kindness and consideration befitting their circumstances.”

Ken Singh was involved in the 2005 flood-relief initiatives under Consul-General Danny Doobay’s leadership. Others who assisted in the 2005 effort included Ned Blair, Jay Bridgepaul and Cliff Rajkumar, among others. They aggressively organised fundraisers to send aid for the flood victims. Ken owns a cargo-shipping company.

Ken Singh from Atlas Cargo has made it a high priority to respond to the Guyana COVID crisis. He has personally taken the initiative to act selflessly on behalf of the Guyanese people and will make available a 40-foot container of varied first aid and sanitation items, including masks and gloves.

Ken Singh will ship 30,000 canisters of skin antiseptic disinfectant, wet wipes and band aids, among other items, the first week in July.
Cliff has cheered the generosity of Ken, Frank Julian, and others in this gesture of kindness. This is a very kind, magnanimous, and patriotic act. He said others are also invited to become involved in such a noble humanitarian cause for those who are caught in such a desperate and precarious exposure to COVID-19 in Guyana.

Yours truly,
Vishnu Bisram