Dear Editor,

On March 9, 2010, the Guyana Chronicle published a letter in its ‘Letters Column’ accusing the Linden Salvation Council (LSC) of using donations from the Food for the Poor organization to garner support in the upcoming Local Government Elections. The letter was not signed by a real person but by a ‘concerned citizen’. The paper’s editorial management cannot allow its pages to be used to attack, vilify and to bring into disrepute a reputable Linden-based NGO which has been in existence since 1998 and which has contributed to improving the lives of thousands of Lindeners over the years. The Chronicle named the NGO in the letter thus should have published the name of the letter writer. LSC must respond.

The most insidious, all pervading and debilitating problem in Linden is its grinding poverty.

Linden exists with over 80% unemployment! Yes over 80% unemployment! And among the working poor, the mean family income is on an average less than $25,000 per month. The biggest problem facing whatever leadership exists in Linden at whatever level is to refocus attentions and intentions, energies and chatter away from social unrest and into finding solutions to deal with the scourge of poverty which afflicts this town: 1. Immediate solutions to deal with the immediate problems of hunger and malnutrition and 2. medium to long term solutions to create conditions for the attraction of investments which will create badly needed jobs.

The Food for the Poor organization in Guyana has done more to alleviate and to cushion the negative effects of poverty in and across Guyana than perhaps all the other NGO’s in Guyana put together. Its bona fides and its contributions to this country are embedded in our history and cannot be sullied nor deprecated. The Food for the Poor organization in Guyana has established a partnership with the LSC with the objective of ensuring that the programmes executed by Food for the Poor Guyana across Guyana are implemented and executed in Linden, in an effective and evenhanded manner so that the intended beneficiaries of the programmes in fact really do benefit.

It was imperative for the LSC to ensure that it operated on the basis of reality with respect to the levels and degrees of poverty in Linden. To this end, the LSC commissioned and is in the process of completing a Needs Assessment survey, which survey seeks to identify among other things, unemployment levels, income levels, age distribution in families, illnesses in families etc.

Because of its past experiences in Linden, the Food for the Poor organization in Guyana requires and emphasizes the need for absolute transparency and effective management of the resources it sends to Linden. It wants to absolutely ensure that those in Linden really in need will be the final beneficiaries of those resources.

The following is an example of the system set up by the LSC to manage the Food for the Poor Guyana resources in Linden: 1. The establishment of the Linden Food for the Poor committee. 2. The organization of the Linden Food for the Poor committee into 23 groups; each group managed by an executive committee of ten persons. 3. The commissioning and ongoing operationalisation of a needs assessment survey whereby approximately 300 persons are currently visiting every home in Linden in order to generate a data base that is based on reality on the ground and not on mere opinions, guesses and speculations. 4. To date the Linden Food for the Poor Committee has received two truck-loads of items/articles from Food for the Poor Guyana. On each occasion, the items/articles were divided equally into 23 parts by the chairpersons of each of the 23 Food for the Poor groups. These items/articles were then taken by each group leader to their respective areas where they were distributed to the most needy (based on the information gathered so far in the Needs Assessment survey.) The chairperson of each group must sign on a prescribed form for every item received on behalf of their group. The final recipient must also sign for every item he/she receives on behalf of his/her family.

The Food for the Poor Guyana’s intervention in Linden, this time around, in partnership with LSC, will not only be based on the distribution of food and other commodities. It also intends to (a).

Build and distribute dozens if not hundreds of 2-bedroom starter homes. (b). Organize specially designed information technology training programmes targeting primarily female single parents who are school dropouts who can absorb and benefit from such training and who can be made ready for the hundreds of jobs we in Linden expect will be made available with the advent of the fibre optic cable coming from Brazil. (c). Establish a daily feeding programme to cater for hundreds of school children and adults providing at least one nutritious meal per day. (d). Establish a 100-acre farm with three objectives – to feed into our daily feeding programme; to provide some jobs (farm hands, labourers etc.); and to earn income from the surplus produce that would be sold on the open market. (e). Establishment of a sewing class cum mini garment production centre which would utilize existing skills and at the same time provide some jobs.

As can be seen from the foregoing, the Food for the Poor Guyana’s intervention in Linden on this occasion is seriously meant to make a contribution towards assisting in alleviating the dire and debilitating social and other problems being encountered by the citizens of and in this town.

The approach by the LSC in this regard therefore has to be serious, professional, scientific and transparent. The Needs Assessment survey and the database produced from it is a crucial and very useful tool in our methodology. The fact that it is happening now when Local Government Elections are in the air and when the LSC has signaled its intention to compete for the right to manage Linden in the future, is but a mere coincidence which provides opportunistic fodder for charlatans and those with a vested interest in keeping Linden the way it is, to attack organizations like the LSC, but we in the LSC have no need to use our partnership with Food for the Poor Guyana to garner support. Our record of service to the Linden community over the past years speaks for itself. Furthermore, none of the 300 odd persons conducting the Needs Assessment survey has been told that they have to become members of the Linden Salvation Council in order to be a part of this programme much more the final recipients of the items.

We openly call on all Lindeners and Guyanese as a whole to join us in our quest to gradually turn Linden around and ease the daily sufferings of its people. We want your goodwill, your participation, your help.

Yours faithfully,
Phillip Bynoe
Chairman
Dr. Joseph Haynes
Secretary