The Ministry of Amerindian Affairs is looking to assist the Domingo sisters – who survived a month-long ordeal in the jungle in 1995 – to recover money that was placed in trust for them and which they have since been unable to access.
The ministry’s Permanent Secre-tary Nigel Dharamlall told Stabroek News that at their management meeting on Monday, the matter was raised. He said staff at the ministry are looking into it to ensure that the young women get their money. An article based on an interview with one of the sisters appeared in last week’s Sunday Stabroek.
Bertina Domingo and her sister Bernadette, then 13 and 9 years old respectively, in 1995 wandered lost in the jungle for over a month, surviving using their traditional knowledge. During their arduous weeks wandering in the jungle, they watched their uncle die, they almost starved and escaped a stalking jaguar.
The girls eventually stumbled upon some miners at their mining camp and the miners brought them to Georgetown. After their gripping story of survival was made public, the sisters were hailed as heroines and the following year, were awarded the Medal of Service by the late president Dr Cheddi Jagan.
Nineteen years later, Bertina, who once expressed a wish to be a nurse, still remembers the incident though she hardly ever talks about it, she told Stabroek News in an interview in the remote rainforest community of Apoteri in Region Nine recently. At 32, she is now the mother of six children and living in Apoteri, farming and fishing in the jungle surrounding the remote village located at the confluence of the Rupununi and Essequibo Rivers. Bernadette now lives in Brazil.
She had recounted the incident and its aftermath to Stabroek News and recalled that among other gifts, they were given a sum of money and it was placed in the bank. According to a Stabroek News report at the time, $65, 500 was handed over. “They were promising us when I complete 18 years, when my sister complete 18 years, we could go to the bank and collect our money,” Bertina said, adding that the “government people” said so. She said that Dr Jagan had told them they would get money. “The minister was Janet Jagan husband,” she said referring to the late president.
However, to date she has not been able to access the money and she has not returned to the city. Bertina said she did not know how to access her account nor did she know the account number. Upon her return to Apoteri, she resumed school and attended up to Form Two as it was the highest class in the community. When she was awarded the medal, she had expressed a desire to become a nurse, but this did not happen and she had no chance to write any exams. Bertina remained in Apoteri and once, she said, she fell ill and had to go to the hospital. On her return, a box which contained her precious documents including the bank slip and the medal had been emptied. She does not know what became of the items.
Bertina is now the mother of six: a 15-year-old boy who is working in the goldfields, an 11-year-old girl who is preparing to write the Grade Six exams next year, a 10-year-old girl, a 6-year-old boy and a 4-year-old boy who are all in school. Her youngest child is a one-year-old girl.
The woman had said that she would like to access the money as soon her 11-year-old daughter would be sent to secondary school in Annai and would be boarding there. She said that her father is not working at the moment and it is difficult to get items in the remote community.
