“I want to go home, but I have no home, nowhere to go,” a tearful Bibi Ahbeda Alli said from her bed at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), where she has been for four months.
Bibi has been suffering from filaria since 1997, and as a result has been immobile for four years now. In early December last year, Bibi said, her filaria started acting up, so she called the hospital for an ambulance and was told to hold on until 2.30 pm, as there was only one ambulance available, and it was being used to transport a pregnant woman in labour. This was her only means of transport.
Before her temporary retreat in the hospital, the 52-year-old woman was living in an “old” house in Lusignan, with no light or water, for which she was paying a rent of $5,000 per month. That day, as she awaited the arrival of the ambulance, Bibi recounted, the house came crashing down with her inside. She said it was a dentist from the area who went to her rescue and called the fire department, which promptly responded to free her from the debris. Afterwards, another neighbour, who owns a bus, transported her to the hospital, and she has been there ever since.
“When I come to de hospital I didn’t even have a cup or spoon to use, ‘cause I lost everything. The doctors dem had to cut the saline bottle and make a cup for me,” Alli recounted. Gesturing to the handful of things around her bedside, she said that “is dem church people and people who come and see me bring dem thing this fuh meh”. When asked if she has any family, Alli explained that she has one son who is in prison, and brothers and sisters living right here in Guyana, who are “doing well, but they never come and visit me or help me”.
Bibi further explained that her husband died in September 2000, and she used to depend on her father up to last year, when he died in May. He was her only support after she became immobile.
As if her domestic situation is not enough to cope with, Bibi constantly has to battle with the filaria, which, according to her, nearly killed her. She said that after she was admitted to the hospital, the disease moved up to her right breast, which became swollen. As a result, it took about two nurses and a porter to lift it in order to clean it. Bibi also has to deal with her increasing weight, which occurs as a result of her immobility. However, she says she only eats healthy foods like whole wheat bread and low fat products, “cause if ah geh mo fat, who gon help me?” Added on to all that, she has been lying on her back for two out of the four months that she’s in the GPH.
The woman, who receives a monthly allowance of $5,000 from the government, says that she has overstayed her time in the hospital and she wants to go home. She explained that she has transported land at 456 Grass Field Lusignan, but she only has a few materials with which to start building a house. She said her story was once published in the Kaieteur News, and she received a mattress and some foodstuff from Food for the Poor. Alli recounted that there was a man in her neighbourhood (Lusignan), who used to distribute stuff on behalf of Food for the Poor, but “you had to pay a fee for it”, so she would send her nephew with the $300, expecting to get foodstuff and clothes, but instead all he would return with were books.
Bursting into tears, Alli said that when her son was before the court, he appealed to the probation officer to find a home for his mother. The officer then came, but Bibi explained to her that she didn’t want to go to the Palms; this was before her home came crashing down.
Alli is appealing to the general public and governmental and non-governmental organizations to assist her in any way possible, whether with building materials, clothing, foodstuff, or even money. Anyone desirous of assisting Bibi can contact her on telephone number 679-7411, or visit her in the Female Medical Ward (bed 28) of the GPH.
