COVID-19: Women leading humanitarian relief efforts amidst challenges

L-R Ashaka King, Rapa Robinson, and Melissa Atwell 

A number of Guyanese have been leading individual and collective efforts to reduce both the economic and health risks on this nation by supporting families and persons during the Coronavirus epidemic which Guyana, like the rest of the world is battling to conquer.

Among those persons making a difference are Rapa Robinson, a former teacher who now operates a catering service in Berbice, Melissa Atwell of YANA, a Non-Governmental not for profit organization and small business proprietress Ashaka King of Pieces.

BIG Smith News Watch has been monitoring the respective operations of these women over the last few weeks and on Tuesday evening reached to hear from them exactly, how their initiatives are benefiting the people most in need of such humanitarian assistance.

Ashaka King

Ashaka King told this publication that her work is in association with a number of volunteers and generous givers, the latter, mostly representing private citizens who have been responding to her public social media calls for donation to aid the drive. According to her though, Bounty Supermarket is supporting the humanitarian efforts in a big way nevertheless.

The practice of social distancing according to her, is one of the slight setbacks as those who are willing to lend of their time and the facilitating of interpersonal meeting with team members is not taking place at the level that would see more being done.

Food items King and her associates gathered

King concluded by stressing some disappointment that the corporate community appears not to be doing as much in this time as one would expect but she is hopeful that they would come around at some point to assist in bringing relief to the thousands of families. She expressed a fear that those who are doing individual contributions to these humanitarian reliefs may soon be unable to do so if the COVID-19 pandemic prolongs

Rupa Robinson

Meanwhile, Rupa Robinson in her discussion with BIG Smith News Watch related that she has not been able to have her humanitarian relief efforts done on the scale she expected due to reservations that some establishments in Berbice have.

Robinson told this publication that already she has been able to make some distributions and would like to do more but securing discounts and items at some supermarkets in the ancient count is the real challenge.

Items Robinson was able to gather for distribution

According to her, some establishments have outrightly indicated to her that they cannot support what she is doing as they are unfamiliar with her while others appear more inclined to support these initiatives but through an organization or persons who are well-known. Notwithstanding that, she continues to knock on doors and call at counters and gate to keep the initiative going.

Melissa Atwell

Melissa Atwell is among the other persons who have been using social media to rope in supplies for families in desperate need of basic necessities of life during this coronavirus lockdown. When BIG Smith News Watch reached out to her on Tuesday, she regarded her greatest challenge as being unable to find enough supplies to provide for those persons messaging for assistance.

Atwell also spoke of her organizations’ challenge in determining those who are actually in need as against those who are just seeking to capitalize on this period that so many hope would just go away immediately. Atwell has been distributing hampers to families across Regions 4 and three but there are requests for supplies elsewhere which she cannot respond to due to lack of supplies and transportation.

Some of what Atwell has been packing into hampers for distribution by her organization

According to her, her team has been reporting that in some instances, operatives of the major political parties have been giving supplies to their bases while ignoring others who are close by and are also in need of the same sort of assistance.

The Ministry of Public Health through its figurehead, Minister Volda Lawrence issued a gazetted Public Health Ordinance, aspect of which the Guyana Police Force is enforcing. The Public Health Ordinance among other things; restricts the movement of people, discourages public gatherings and reduces the scale at which some economic activities are conducted- all in an attempt to stem the spread of the deadly COVID-19 Virus.

Since then, economic activities have scaled back a bit in Guyana with some stores closing at half-day while others have not been operating, thus affecting the ability persons to earn. This is further compounded by the need for social distancing, it is because of these necessary steps that persons have been popping up and seeking to support these families with small hampers.

It should be noted that the Civil Defense Commission has also been distributing hampers to families across the country. There are some communities in Guyana which are readily referred to as depressed ones and in situations like the current state of affairs, it is only natural that individual and organizations with good intent would move to those communities first, with that, however, comes it’s own challenge of individuals ‘double-collecting’ or in some instances ‘triple-collecting’ supplies when various agencies, organization and individual visit the communities, thus inadvertently depriving another families or communities of becoming recipients of the essential supplies.

“The CDC has noted that several public and private entities and individuals are coordinating similar distribution interventions across the country. It is recommended that all distributions be coordinated through one system to avoid duplication of efforts and to maximize resources. Colonel Kester Craig noted a statement on April 11, 2020.

EDITOR’S NOTE: As a matter of policy, BIG Smith News Watch is not in the habit of publishing images of persons receiving handouts of eatables.