Days after the story of Bibi Shameela’s struggles of providing for her three grandsons who lost their mother to a brutal domestic violence attack was published in this newspaper, officials from the Ministry of Social Protection contacted her, made a home visit and she is now awaiting further information.
An official from the Child Care and Protection Agency contacted this newspaper and requested the woman’s number indicating that the agency wanted to assist the woman and was not seeking to remove the children from the home.
“Dem call me and tell me to carry in dem children birth certificate and suh to the Vreed-en-Hoop office and I carry it in,” the woman told the Sunday Stabroek when contacted
She said two officials later visited her Greenwich Park, East Bank Essequibo (EBE) home and inspected it.
“Them come and dem look around, dem want see where dem children sleeping and I show dem. Me husband does sleep in one room and the next room gat two beds, a single one wah me daughter does sleep on and a bigger one wah me and dem children does sleep on,” the woman explained.
She expressed the hope that the children not be taken away from her as she wants them to remain together.
“I have two old fridge in me house. I don’t know if dah is a problem and me chair dem old but me cover dem over nice fuh Christmas. I does try, you know. Right now is the month of Ramadan and I get a lil wuk at the Masjid to wash wares… the hand does hurt but a does gat to try,” she said.
The woman is determined to keep her daughter Bibi Shareema’s two, five, and six-year-old sons together. Last week she had said it was not just the financial struggle, but she also has to grapple with the emotional in securing the well-being of the children.
The family’s life changed on August 3, 2016 when her 26-year-old daughter’s then estranged husband crept into the family’s home and attacked her. Shameela ran to her daughter’s rescue and was also attacked.
Forty-four days later on October 15, 2016 Bibi Shareema died at the Georgetown Public Hospital, where she had been in a vegetative state from the time she was admitted. Shareema had sustained injuries to the region of her heart and lungs. She had also sustained open wounds to her wrist and elbow, as well as to her leg. Shameela was chopped about her hand.
Their assailant, Shareema’s husband Bhawanie Harrinarine, known as ‘Moon,’ a fisherman of Parika, EBE, had consumed a poisonous substance and died a few days later at the West Demerara Regional Hospital.
The grandmother said last week that since the incident her grandchildren had not been counselled.
She had also indicated that she approached the welfare office in her area for assistance and was told she needed a letter from the school saying the children attend regularly before assistance is given.
“But me went to the headmistress and she telling me come back tomorrow, come back another day and is like me nah able now to run every time. Dem children does go to school with a bus and me gaffuh catch bus to go to de school and me nah able…” the woman stressed.
The woman said she hopes the authorities will follow through and give some much needed help even finding a better place for them to live.