An overseas-based Guyanese woman who always dreamt of assisting the less fortunate children in her home country has started to make her dream a reality, with the assistance of many, and will open an orphanage come October at Industry Front, East Coast Demerara.
Sheila Surujpaul and her husband Surujnauth Surujpaul are the owners of the plot of land, which they have dedicated for the ‘Bless the Children’s Home – Orphanage’. Once completed, the home would be able to accommodate some 72 children.
The Surujpauls are members of the New Testament Church of God, which has branches in many countries, and with assistance from those churches, will maintain the institution.
Surujpaul told Stabroek News that it was always his wife’s dream to assist the deprived and forsaken children of Guyana. After coming up with the idea, the couple opened a bank account in September 2005, in the name of the home and was its first contributor. They then planned a trip back home and while here many other church members agreed to co-operate to the best of their ability to see the project come to reality.
“We see children on the street and they need help and attention. Some of them have lost their parents to HIV, so we thought that we could help and provide them with a home and teach them a life according to the Bible and its principles,” he said.
The couple is still holding discussions with the Human Services Ministry, which, according to Surujpaul, has been very responsive. Construction of the home would be completed in Septembr, and its administrators hope to start taking children from early October. Construction started in March 2006.
The cost to construct the orphanage is some US$56,000. The building when completed will have 20 bedrooms, a kitchen, dining rooms, living room, and recreation room, bathrooms, storage rooms, parents’ room.
