Help the Children September 2007

I wrote this document in an effort to share with you a very sad and disheartening situation in Guyana. There are many distressing situations there including AIDS, drug and alcohol abuse, battered women and children and poverty. What I am about to share with you is primarily about the forgotten class of people in Guyana: The Poor. These are the people living just below the poverty line and those living in extreme poverty. This is not a chain letter but an appeal for action. And, a cry to remember that deep down in the very essence of our being, regardless of our zip code or what we have achieved in this world, we are still Guyanese. On that basis I am appealing to you to read this document. ***** I visited Guyana in March of 2005 after the catastrophic flooding. The purpose of that trip was twofold. First, it was to visit the poor area where the residents have limited personal resources and no supplemental overseas help, and are living at/below the poverty level and try to help them. And, second, to evaluate the situation of these residents with emphasis on needs, social problems and find a solution to provide help. I concentrated on the village of Good Hope on the East Coast of Demerara. Since then I made three more trips, the most recent being the last week of August 2007. I have been in constant communication with these people and have spent time with the parents and the children. On my first trip, I conducted a door-to-door visit with twenty-five homes that were at/or below poverty level. These homes are basically shacks. They are approximately 120 sq. ft. in area, unpainted and are made of rough lumber/second cut slab. They are about three to four feet off the ground. I visited these homes because they visually portrayed all the signs of poverty. I met with each family was allowed to enter their homes and observe the condition in which they live and are raising their children. These households consisted of an average of three children with ages ranging from fourteen years to twomonth old babies. Some homes have as many as seven children. What I saw there broke my heart. I saw the desperation in the mothers eyes; I saw the kids with no teeth (all rotten); I saw the bare floor on which they lay down to sleep; I saw a cry for help everywhere I looked. And, I asked myself how come I never noticed this situation before? I knew though deep down in my heart that these conditions were always there. Maybe I just did not pay attention; maybe I was too wrapped up in my life to care; maybe I was just selfish and coldhearted. Whatever it was that was yesterday today I am taking action part of which is writing this document and praying that you will read it all the way to its conclusion. At the end of my first trip I promised them that I will return and I will also do the best I can to help them better their standard of living and educate their children. My promise to them was made on the strength of my personal belief that education is the key to achieving economic freedom. Therefore, I will work with them to keep their children in Help the Children 1 www.goodhope-gy.org

school and get an education. Over the last two and a half years I did my best to keep that promise and I have seen some success. However, I realized that I would not be doing my best if I do not share what I know with you. It is not my intention to tell you what to do with this knowledge but I am hoping that the information contained herein will cause you to react in some way. I am also hoping as fellow Guyanese, you will continue to read the rest of this document and when you are finished you will forward it to all other Guyanese. How it happened? During the 1970s and 1980s, many countries in the South East Asia, Africa and the Caribbean experienced severe economic distress. Guyana was one of those countries. However, although many of those countries especially in South East Asia and the Caribbean emerged from those shocks and began a steady and sustained growth pattern, Guyana continued to experienced difficulties. Why? This was due to the ongoing political turmoil in the country that started a massive brain drain. The continued loss of its skilled and educated labor force pushed Guyana into deeper economic problems and consequently shifted more and more of its population into poverty. In 1993, according to the Guyanas Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (2001), 43% of the population lived below the poverty line with 29% living in extreme poverty. In 1999, according to same report, 35% of population living below the poverty line with 19 % living under conditions of extreme poverty. What it means to be poor: The poor in Guyana are people, who received limited or no education, have no personal resources, no supplemental help from overseas relatives and are not equipped with the tools to earn a decent living. These people work as unskilled laborers, maids and canecutters. Most of them were born into poverty and are now raising their children in similar situation. My research on their wages earned in relation to the current cost of living index illustrated the losing battle to escape extreme or even moderate poverty. Poverty is eating a piece of cake and drinking soda only on Christmas day; joining a line to receive used clothing and handouts; unable to send your children to school; living in an overcrowded dilapidated structure; no healthcare; constant illness from poor diet. Poverty has different faces. It has an economic face, social face and a psychological face. The economic face is the lack of jobs; poorly paid jobs; no capital to start selfsustenance; and among other things the sad factor of child labor. Poverty has the social face of illiteracy; ignorance that turns to violence; teenage pregnancy that leads to single parenthood; and substance abuse (drugs and alcohol). Psychologically, poverty leads to low self-esteem; lack of knowledge; lack of motivation; and a feeling of helplessness and dependency.

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Poverty in Guyana is treated as a disease such that no one wants to associate with the deprived. During my second visit I took one of the mothers to the Ministry of Housing to pay for her land and get the transported title so that Food for the Poor will build her a small house. When we were eventually allowed in the office, I stayed back and let her talked to the clerk on her own while I watched. What I witnessed confirmed my theory that to the non-poor, the poor is less than a human being. The young mother of five was rudely handled, yelled at and in a very arrogant manner told that she cannot get that land since she never made any payment on it. This was the way the male clerk treated her. She got nervous, could not speak and was visibly shaken. Everything changed after I stepped forward and told him that she was with me. But such is life for the deprived. The only hope for the poor is education. As John Wood, former Microsoft executive and founder of Room to Read (an international charity working in third world countries), so powerfully stated in an interview with MSN: Fight illiteracy and break the cycle of poverty one child at a time. Unfortunately, the poor families in Guyana have difficulties meeting the cost of: transportation to school, examination fees, books, meals and other educational requirements. As a result they are sometimes forced to keep their children at home. Poverty and Education Educational attainment in poor areas is low. The level of education in poor household is lower than that in the non-poor household. One of the main reasons is that the upper middle class and the rich households send their children to private schools. Additionally, the non-poor households have the advantage of parents that are educated or literate enough to help their children at home. Over the last two and a half years, I have spent time talking with children ages 4 to 16. I have tested them in reading, spelling and mathematics. I was privy to their report cards and their workbooks. As a result, I have made the following observations with reference to educating the poor children of Guyana: 1. Young boys aged seven and above are more often school dropouts mainly because they have to work to assist in supporting their family. In May of this year, during a school day and during school hours, I drove through the villages of Mon Repos, Lusignan and Enterprise. The purpose was to observe how many young men under the age of fifteen were selling in the markets, making concrete blocks, catching fish, working in yards or just loitering on the streets. I found more than I expected. Their response to my question: Why are you not in school? was the same: Simple smile and downcast eyes. 2. Parents are highly illiterate and cannot help their children with their schoolwork. The mothers are basically responsible for the childrens school attendance. The husbands are rarely involved. Parents lack adequate resources to provide lunch, school supplies, clothes and shoes. Due to poor home environment, the absence of parental encouragement, and irregular school attendance the children rarely do well at school and are more inclined to drop out. Help the Children 3 www.goodhope-gy.org

3. The older children are sometimes needed at home to take care of the younger kids so that the mothers can work and / or run errands. In 2005, I visited a home where the mother was suffering from an enlarged heart and was hospitalized. As I walked into the yard, I saw her twelve year-old son sitting in front of an aluminum tub washing clothes. In the house were his two youngest sisters. One, a little baby and the other about two years old. He stayed home from school to take care of his sisters while his other siblings went to school. He has since never returned to school. He recently turned fifteen and is working with a construction contractor making cement blocks. Everyday he leaves home at four oclock in the morning for work. His future without formal education is mediocre at best. 4. Children are promoted from class to class and can barely read. I tested a 13 yearold male student attending primary school on the East Coast of Demerara. This boy is in Form 1 and can hardly read and could not recite the three or four times table. I spent some time with two nine year-old pupils (boys) from a primary school on the West Coast of Demerara and found that they too can barely read. 5. The children who do not get into secondary school via the Common Entrance Exam are kept in the primary school system and promoted to From 1. The primary school system from Form 1 upward is considered to be the same as secondary schools and it is expected that the children follow that curriculum and eventually write the CXC exams. This hardly ever lead to success because the children were initially never up to the Form 1 level (they flunked out at Common Entrance), were given no remedial tuition to bring them on par with their Form 1 counterparts and are moved from class to class every year in spite of their grades. 6. Schools are not sending out absenteeism letters to the parents even though individual class teachers are required to submit monthly reports to the principals office on all children with less than seventy-five percent (75%) class attendance. The system is there but not effectively (if at all) executed. 1 through 6 above is an accepted and real occurrence in the public schools in the rural / country areas where poverty is apparent and accepted. This situation continues because there is no accountability from the parents all the way to the Ministry of Education. The lack of responsibility at the school and governmental level of the childrens primary education paves the way for the parents apathetic attitude towards their childrens learning. The parents represent the first step in a childs edification and if there is no accountability there then where is the governments role in educating its children? What can we do? Like every country in the world, Guyana has its fair share of poverty. This should be a simple and preventable situation given the fact that the number of families living in this condition is small when compared to most third world countries of the world. Furthermore, there is a solid pool of Guyanese professionals and successful Guyanese businessmen, both locally and overseas to tap for help. Unfortunately, poverty is an accepted reality among Guyanese. In my experience, when I broach this subject with my affluent and upper middle class countrymen I get the following popular responses:

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They (the poor) are lazy and dont want to work that is why they are poor Helping them (the poor) create dependency, they will never help themselves They (the poor) drink too much rum They (the poor) like their lives that is why they are like that etc..etc.. I disagree. These people need our help. The children need our help. We need to secure the childrens childhood to allow them to transition from being children to teenagers to adulthood the way nature intended. Something must be done now to thwart this disheartening cycle from continuing and to give these people some hope. But most important, we must prevent these children from becoming the next generation of poor and uneducated souls and instead nurture them to develop into the bright young minds of the future. Only then can Guyana truly prosper - A country is only as good as its human capital. The poor families need support through their quest to invest in their childrens well being. They need help to create a stable and comfortable home environment to allow the children to blossom into healthy and educated adults. This can only happen if: Parents can expand on their (parents) education and skills to earn a better living or find a way to subsidize current income stream Parents are empowered to seek and fight for betterment for themselves and their family Role models are provided for children and that will build confidence and self esteem and encourage ambition in children A community environment is created where the children can interact with other kids and develop talent and skills Do your own investigation but unless you have entered the home (or whatever they call home) of a family living in extreme poverty, spend time with them and witness first hand their life, you will not experience what it means to be poor in Guyana. Do whatever you choose to do with this information but it is my hope that you will take some action. The action you take might be different from the one I employed because you need to do what works for you. Whatever happens, I sincerely hope that you do one or more of the following: Adopt a family Become a role model / big sister/ big brother to a poor child or children in Guyana Volunteer with or donate to an NGO or charity that work with the poor in Guyana Read the reports on Guyana by United Nations (Millennium Goals), USAID and the UN Development Program. Forward this document to all the Guyanese you know Spread the word around

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Make a trip to Guyana and visit a poor area. Even if you cannot or are unwilling to visit a poor area, just visiting Guyana is helping the country

Conclusion This document was written primarily to spread the word about the forgotten class of people in Guyana. My opinions and observations stated here are made based on what I saw, information I have gathered during my visits to Guyana and listening to the stories of the families. I conducted my own research and where I have used third party information, I referred to the source. I am not asking you to believe what you read here even though I hope you do. The UNDP, the United Nations (MDGs) and USAID have published reports on Guyana. They have written about Guyana being one of the poorest countries in that region despite its abundant natural resources; about the low education level; about the social ills and about the countrys poor governance. The common conclusion in all the reports as to why the country is struggling to reach its goals; raising its education standard; increasing its GDP etc. is: Guyana has suffered a huge brain drain that started in the early 1970s and the bleeding continues. For those of us who have lived in or are living in North America, we have seen the commercials on global poverty. We have seen how we can help a child for just the price of a cup of coffee per day. So for just a dollar a day you can save a childs future. If each of us can move one child out of poverty during our lifetime then collectively we have given the monster poverty a good kick! I know that some of you are already aware of this situation and are currently taking action. I commend you all for that and will pray that the Good Lord give you the strength, knowledge and the resources to continue your fine work. We need to focus on the needs of the impoverished children of Guyana. Like their parents, they lack the knowledge of how to battle for a better life. We need to ensure that these children have access to education, nutrition, healthcare and other support services to achieve eventual self-sufficiency. Friends, remember change is possible. It is never too late to work for change. Together, we can send a new message to the deprived and abused across Guyana that they are not forgotten; that there is hope for a better life; that there are people who care. I will end with a direct quote from John Perkins latest book: You personally have a great deal of power; it is essential that you allow your passions to rise up, channel them in ways that complement your talents, and take action. The course you choose must come from your heart, not from the dictates of anyone else. You simply must step forward. Thank you for your time. Sandra K. Shivdat 973-477-6655 (cell); email: sshivdat@aqminc.net

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