‘PLAZA STREET’ is a term and place familiar to every villager of Melanie and even those from neighbouring villages. Plaza Street can be described as Melanie’s own village centre – an avenue lined with a number of businesses and bars. It is a focal point for many of the village’s celebrations and the place comes alive when the community comes together.

The plaza was built under former president Forbes Burnham. It was among Guyana’s first malls and it profoundly impacted the community and the country at the time. Today, all that remains of the once spectacular plaza is its name and the street on which it once was. But its influence on Melanie’s people could still be felt today and many wish it could be recaptured.

Sherwin Moffatt began his childhood in Melanie. Today, he works on Plaza Street and one of its many hotspots. He first came to live in Melanie with extended family amidst issues between his parents. He said, “My parents had some problems and I had some cousins here. And it was me and my sister that came to live in Melanie.” Melanie was once breathtaking as he remembers it, and the plaza left his young mind awestruck.

“At night in Melanie the place was so nice, because it was right next door to the plaza. In the night the plaza would light up,” he said, likening the village of Melanie to a foreign place. “I thought it was New York I reach when I saw the night in Melanie. The place was beautiful,” Sherwin said. Melanie’s unity is said to be in its very roots and humble beginnings. The village was formed by hardworking Guyanese people cooperating through self-help initiatives.

Today, the village still has a co-op where many things in the village are done by its residents. Sherwin said the co-op was an impressive effort no doubt. But he would love to see the involvement of more young people. And for young people to carry on the baton, the older generation has to hand it over.

“The elder people that are in the co-op need to come out and go through the alleyways in Melanie. They are only focusing on the front drains and the side drains, but through the alleyway nobody is going and they need to come out and look at [them].” Sherwin expressed.

He went on to emphasise that, the task of cleaning up Melanie is by no means an impossible one, saying “Our plaza can be cleaned up; the self-help crew needs to come out and do it……”
Sherwin further shared that it is the responsibility of the people to band together to care for the place they love, value and call home. “We, the people, can get strong and work together to get it clean; I am here. I will be the first to be the person who is going to start it,” he said.

In the past, Sherwin remembers how Melanie’s collaborative efforts would be implemented with every home offering a family member to work towards the development of the village. “One member from each home used to come out. We never had all this bush growing about, the drains stagnant. We never had that. We need Melanie people to get back to the frame that they come from,” he said.

Sherwin says that he has seen some steps being made to have the young people play a larger role in the village. He stated that, “For the previous location government election, I saw some young men get up and went out there. Because they need to be in the co-op. Because the old people aren’t coming out.” The vision of Melanie that Forbes Burnham had put forward, like in various other housing communities of the time, was that of a picturesque and peaceful suburban paradise.

As Sherwin said, “Burnham used to come himself.” He further stated, “He, Burnham, would share out books and pencils. And then he would tell you how to keep the community in order. “As time went on, Melanie went through a change, one where Sherwin says the village’s residents became less cooperative, where the people no longer banded together as they did, and wherein Melanie lost its sense of community. “You found that the community started to break up instead of build-up, and that is why our community is looking like this today.” Sherwin passionately expressed.

The very name of Melanie, the word Damishana, means village. And there are still very few places that feel as authentically village among changes as Melanie does, with its neighbourhood shops around every corner, it’s young men playing football in the streets and the friendly women always offering a smile. Melanie is more than a village; it has become a family. Sherwin loves his village and holds it in high regard as the place that accepted and shaped him. And his message to his fellow villager and country men alike is simple. “We have to like and love where we are living. And we have to do better and I know it will be a better place,” he said.