Five weeks after Tamika Miller was brutally stabbed 27 times by her husband and narrowly escaped the ordeal, her life is being set back on track thanks to the contributions of three local corporate entities.
Following the publication of Miller’s tragic story, Scotiabank Guyana, Habitat for Humanity Guyana, and Courts Guyana came together to offer their assistance to the woman and her eight-year-old daughter, Terrencia, who had witnessed the attack on her mother.
Sometime after the attack, her husband, Andrew Patterson, was found hanging in the backyard of a house at Versailles, with both wrists slit and a knife close by his suspended body.
Repairs are scheduled to be conducted on Miller’s Goed Fortuin home and will include upgraded floors and kitchen cupboards along with the construction of a sanitary block.
According to a joint press release, Scotiabank and Courts will finance the repairs while Habitat Guyana will provide the technical skills to execute the repairs.
Though these repairs are incomplete, assistance has also been given to the family through a partnership between ChildLink Guyana and Scotiabank to provide counselling for Miller’s young daughter. Since the incident, Terrencia and her mother had been staying in a Kitty home with family and the young girl had been unable to attend her school on the West Coast Demerara.
Last week, Scotiabank provided financial support to enable the girl to travel to school. During a simple ceremony yesterday at Scotiabank’s Robb Street offices, an emotional Miller thanked the organisations for their benevolent contributions and urged all women to be on the lookout for signs of abuse in their relationships. “I just wan’ tell all the women out there, look out for certain signs because I didn’t expect this [the abuse],” a teary Miller advised.
Pernell Cummings, Marketing Manager at Courts Guyana, noted that abuse was a blight that needed to be addressed by all of corporate Guyana. “Abuse doesn’t affect just the direct victim but everyone that comes in contact with the person that has been abused,” Cummings emphasised.
Miller also used the opportunity to encourage all organizations to help other victims of abuse in the very manner she had been helped.
“Nobody ever done anything like this for me; I sit down and work hard and do everything for myself,” Miller pointed out.
Along with the repairs to her home, the woman received monetary donations from Courts as well Habitat for Humanity.
However, she was not the only beneficiary. Scotiabank also handed over several cheques to a number of local organisations.
According to Jennifer Cipriani, the bank’s Marketing Manager, the Robb Street branch of the bank raised $1.2 million through its annual cake sale in October 2013 and received the same sum from the bank’s Bright Future Programme. The Avon Community Help Fund and the Periwinkle Club are this year’s beneficiaries.
Fifteen other charities, both in and out of Georgetown, also earned themselves $1.2 million yesterday. The beneficiaries are: Bartica Lion’s Club, Joshua House, St John Boscoe Orphanage, the Guyana Red Cross Children’s Convalescent Home, the West Demerara Lions Club, the Alpha Children’s Home, the Cancer Society – Berbice Chapter, the Friend’s Primary School, the Children of Promise Eden Orphanage, the Betsy Ground Primary School, Uncle Eddie’s Home, the Ruimveldt Children’s Home, the Guyana Relief Council, the Ptolemy Reid Rehabilitation Centre, and the Kairuni Women’s Group.
