Juncata Juvant, an organisation which provided services to involuntary re-migrants, has been forced to close its doors because of lack of funding, the organisation’s former president Joseph Harmon said.
“Basically what we were forced to do, we had to take a very hard decision and close the doors of the office,” Harmon told the Sunday Stabroek in a recent interview.
Juncata Juvant (Latin for ‘things joined together are helpful’) Friendly Society was set up in April of 2007 and its last major funding came from the Inter Organisation for Migration (IOM), but that dried up in 2010 and last January the doors were closed.
The organisation’s former vice-president Donna Snaag, who ran the day-to-day operations of the office, had indicated last year that if no funding was forthcoming the organisation would have to close down.
Juncata Juvant was one of the partners of the IOM Guyana office which provided US$2.8 million to assist returnees in Guyana, Haiti and the Bahamas. In addition to the society, IOM had also teamed up with the Institute of Private Enterprise Development (IPED) which was expected to provide the returnees with access to business management and entrepreneurship training, and help in developing a business plan. It was expected that some 250 persons would have benefited not only from assistance to start up businesses but also from orientation sessions, a hygiene package on arrival, and most importantly, support with temporary accommodation.
While a report was compiled following the completion of the project it has not been released to the media, and the local IOM office did not give an update on how successful the programme had been.
According to Harmon, Juncata depended heavily on funding to do its work and had started with a grant from the Canadian High Commission which had given it the impetus to begin its work.
“Together with that we solicited the assistance of the government and the private sector to help in the reintegration of these persons who would have been deported from various parts of the world back to Guyana,” Harmon said.
After the funding dried up, he said, they made approaches to other places, and while initially they got some assistance that also came to an end, and the organisation’s own fund-raising to help in the administration of the office facilities was also limited.
Harmon said they had approached the Ministry of Human Services and the Ministry of Home Affairs to have some arrangement whereby they could provide the services in office space provided by a ministry, or even have the ministry provide the service, “but that did not seem to find favour with either ministry.”
However, some of the counsellors still keep in contact with their clients, and would put them on to other organisations which offer counselling services while assisting them in whatever limited way they can.
“I do believe that it is a service which must be provided and particularly as we look at the [national] budget at this time, we have to find creative ways of trying to assimilate these people into our society; they are citizens, they are Guyanese citizens,” he said.
While some organizations provide limited services for returnees, Harmon said it is not enough to cater for the large number of people who need help.
Harmon could not give an update on the whereabouts of Snaag, herself an involuntary re-migrant, but revealed that she was engaged in some other personal ventures on her own and had travelled abroad in pursuance of these, although he did not know if she was still overseas.
He said they felt that the organisation was an important social network as the deported persons are citizens of Guyana who need assistance, since some of them had lost all familial connections to Guyana and had nowhere to go.
“Some of them we found in very, very bad condition; some of them were actually sleeping on the bleachers at Independence Park on Burnham Basketball Court; some of them were found sleeping on the seawalls outside the Pegasus – I think they call it the annex to the Pegasus, but they were sleeping under cardboard boxes and stuff like that,” he said.
Harmon pointed out that incarcerated persons in Guyana are treated better as they have shelter, meals and some of their medical needs are met. He said as an organisation they felt that the returnees were free citizens and that the society ought to provide a certain social safety network for them.
Transitional House
Meanwhile, Eskar Adams of Transitional House Rehabilitation Centre, Queenstown, New Amsterdam, has revealed that his organisation has been working with returnees since it opened its doors in 2008. He said they would pick them up from the Criminal Investigation Department Headquarters, Eve Leary after they had been alerted by immigration authorities in Canada or by relatives of US returnees.
“We help them to get their work certificates, apply for their passports and for those who have a history of drug addiction we have programmes to assist them,” Adams told the Sunday Stabroek. He said that they help the deportees to be re-integrated into communities through the local Berbice Chambers of Commerce who also assist some of them in finding employment. In addition, the returnees help the organisation in its community work as those who are interested will tell their stories and experiences to schoolchildren.
“We all have a story and the youngsters need to hear it,” Adams said.
The organisation provides a shelter for the returnees along with meals and clothing, and they can stay for as long as necessary.
“We sit down and plan a course for them of where they want their life to go, tap into any entrepreneur skills or help them to continue their education,” Adams said.
The organisation liaises with IPED, the University of Guyana Tain Campus and the Institute of Distance Education to get assistance for the returnees.
“God is really in charge of this programme, because we do not receive any funding, Adams said, but he revealed that a “small fee” is paid by the relatives of some while they provide the services for free to others.
The majority (60%) of the returnees have gone on to open their own businesses, such as buying and selling; another 20% have returned to the States and Canada and a small percentage went on to work for companies. Adams said individuals find it hard to work for the sums of money in Guyana.
And since the closure of Juncata Adams said that more persons have sought their assistance.
The Transitional House can be contacted on 333-2229 or 614-2742
