Investing in their village
Indra Sullivan at her once-thriving business place.
Indra Sullivan at her once-thriving business place.

Soesdyke family determined not to give up

ALMOST three years ago, Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara businesswoman Indra Sullivan and her husband, Christopher Sullivan left their home and a fully stocked business place-a bar, pool hall, hardware and grocery shop-in care of relatives to go overseas and came back to empty premises, with everything gone.

According to the Sullivans, they had a binding contract agreement with relatives to operate and record sales following an inventory of all stocks, but when they returned to Guyana, they found the place empty.

Indra Sullivan

This couple did a lot for the community by building a road in their street, contributing when there is a death in the community by cooking food and donating to children and orphans through feeding programmes and kids’ parties.

So when they came home to find nothing, they were shocked and it was beyond belief what had happened to their once-flourishing business.

Sullivan told the Pepperpot Magazine that they have an empty plot of land in the same street, so they have some things they brought in a container to fix up the place and make it to their standard.

The 58-year-old stated that they will have to start from scratch again to rebuild their business and it will take time; her husband is so upset how things went under he started his own trucking company and is working on a barge.

She resides at the Soesdyke Back Road and co-owns Chris’ Bar 1759 and has invested a lot of time and money to beautify the area in front of their home by planting shady trees and constructed concrete benches along the roadside, which provides seating accommodation for locals and visitors.

Sullivan stated that the business was the place to be and they used to host a ‘happy hour’ session every nine months and that was a favourite pastime for many who frequented the bar.

“We have to start over to fix up this place which was left in a bad condition and re-stock the shelves and start over if we want to continue doing this kind of business,” she said.

Sullivan explained that she will never stop doing what is necessary to contribute to society and will still host her thanksgiving event annually for children.

“It is indeed a blessing to give back and I will not stop doing that, because it is what I want to do as a good citizen and a villager,” she said.

Sullivan would ensure they hire clowns and have lots of treats and goodies for the children in the village every year, when she would organise and fund a thanksgiving party.

She disclosed that the villagers would support her business and they have good relations and generally the people are very cooperative and willing to lend a helping hand whenever they have community-enhancement events to clean up the place.

The Soesdyke resident reported that the community is her home village and it is where she wants to be, at home and whatever it takes she will stay and try to revive her dying business.

Chris’ Bar 1759 at Back Road, Soesdyke.

Meanwhile, Christopher Sullivan told the Pepperpot Magazine that he is very disappointed the way his business went down, but he has to think about things as is.

He stated that the village is a good place to live and he tries to upkeep his surroundings, which is evident, with the brightly painted concrete benches and trees which he will outfit with lights, but since he upgraded the road nothing was done to maintain it.

The road is in a bad state with huge potholes and needs to be upgraded and otherwise things are fairly good in the community where everybody is friendly and live in harmony.

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