She sat by herself at the Lusignan Health Centre, her heavily pregnant stomach at odds with her frail-looking body. She was approached and quickly got into a conversation using sign language and even though it was obvious that she was communicating, the security guard decided to point out, “She dumb”.
Twenty-year-old Chandra Khamraj is deaf and cannot speak. She is expecting her third child and on that hot, sunny morning she was waiting to have a blood test done. She pointed to a room full of persons, indicating that was where she was to have the test done. She was unsure of her number in the line of people but seemed quite prepared to wait it out.
An intervention by a concerned acquaintance, who checked with the nurses, resulted in her completing the task in minutes and being able to leave the health centre’s compound.
Stabroek Weekend was approached to highlight Chandra’s dire financial situation. Her common-law husband, who works in construction, has been struggling to find a steady job for months and the family is almost destitute.
For now, they share a home with 79-year-old Bhagwantie Rampersaud, whom Chandra refers to as her grandmother. As she entered the bottom flat of the two-storey house, which is badly in need of repairs, her one-year-old baby rushed to her as even as she tried to convey a message to the older woman who was left with the child. Her other child, a two-year-old boy, is in the care of her older sister, who has no children of her own and has taken full responsibility for him.
She picked up her daughter and sat outside and shortly after was joined by Rampersaud who agreed to be interviewed. Chandra’s husband was not at home at the time and although she indicated that he would have returned shortly, he was not yet back when this newspaper left the home.
At times during the conversation Chandra seemed not to agree with Rampersaud’s narrative. Seemingly angry at some points, she interrupted by engaging Managing Director of the Deaf Association of Guyana Inc, Sabine McIntosh.
As it was told by Rampersaud, who is a very animated storyteller, Chandra’s father was married to her only daughter and they had two children, a boy and a girl. Her daughter died during her third pregnancy and Chandra’s father remarried and had Chandra and another child with his second wife.
But Chandra’s mother also died and later her father fell ill. According to Rampersaud, he knew he was going to die as he attempted to have all the children cared for together, but no one wanted them.
“The big girl she come and tell me tek she two sister dem and leh dem all grow up together, she, she brother and she sister them,” she said.
With her husband’s support she agreed and all four of the siblings lived with her even though it was very difficult at times as she made a living as a vendor and there were times when her husband was not working.
“But he [her former son-in law] been good to me even though me daughter been dead and he new wife too she been good to me,” she said.
Rampersaud’s husband died suddenly one morning, leaving her and the four children. Eventually, the two older children married; the only boy migrated, and the girl moved to another village.
Rampersaud was left with Chandra and her sister and she indicated again that it was difficult.
“You know when children start get big and so, but me use to try. I use to leh dem go to school. Chandra, she use to beat up dem children in school because dey use to tease she about she deafness and dem teachers tell me to tek she out de school,” she said.
It is very difficult to imagine the petite Chandra fighting in school but Rampersaud said she got tired of the taunts and retaliated.
She said Chandra was sent to the David Rose School and she at times travelled to pick her up from school. It was there she met members of the Deaf Association.
McIntosh, who was present throughout the interview, attested to the fact that Rampersaud “tried a lot with Chandra”. But she was also very sympathetic to Chandra and as she puts it “society can very unkind.
‘So, so’
Stabroek Weekend attempted to speak to Chandra through McIntosh but she was reluctant. She indicated that she was “so, so” when asked about her health, but she did say she was expecting her baby by the end of November.
She said her husband has been looking for work for a while but preferred not to speak about the how the two met.
But according to Rampersaud the young man, who is also from the village, was working in the street and saw Chandra. He approached Rampersaud and indicated an interest.
“He come and say how he like Chandra and I tell am that de girl deaf, but he said he ain’t care. But when I ask she later, she say how she nah really like de boy but she lil sister quarrel pun am and tell am is nah who she like is who like she,” the woman said.
Eventually the young man and another relative became the partners of the two girls and moved into Rampersaud’s home. They lived together for a while but there was a disagreement and Chandra’s younger sister and her partner moved away to live in their father’s home some villages away.
By then Chandra was pregnant with her first son who now lives with her older sister. Shortly after she was pregnant with her second child and she and her younger sister gave birth to baby girls days apart.
When Chandra became pregnant a third time soon after, Rampersaud said, her older sister took her to have an abortion, but she refused.
“She tell am she nah abort no baby and the sister say wah a guh do if de gal nah want abort de child,” Rampersaud said.
Trouble
In recent times there has been trouble in the home and Rampersaud said that Chandra and her family will have to move. This is the edict of Rampersaud’s only surviving child, a son, because, according to her, of the manner in which she is being treated by the couple and the fact that Chandra’s husband is not working.
“As soon as I get me pension it gaffo spend,” she complained. “The other day is me last $5,000 he borrow and he nah give me back. Today all I get to eat is some vermicelli and den dem does tun around and buse me. He does cuss me out and dem neighbours does call me son and grandson. I don’t say nothing but is dem does call and this is wah happening now.
“Dem [her son and grandson] say how dem gaffo move out and how I go and live with me granddaughter and the house guh lock up until dem ready to repair it.”
Chandra called the member of the deaf association aside and they had a conversation. Told what Rampersaud said, Chandra denied the claim.
She said she was constantly taunted by neighbours abecause of her disability and that her husband was trying but was not finding a job.
Chandra said that an acquaintance has promised to take in her family. McIntosh promised to follow up on this.
When asked what will happen to Chandra if she is put out, Rampersaud responded, “Well dem is nah nothing really to me. When dem want go out dem does nah even tell me anything but just lef the baby,” she continued, before adding that she is too old to look after the child.
But even as she said so she expressed concern for the child, who was running around the yard by herself and later agreed to keep her when Chandra was taken by McIntosh to get some groceries.
It is obvious that Rampersaud cares for Chandra but it as appears to have to come to the stage where there is so much she can do and no more. Her house is almost falling apart, and she can hardly take care of herself. The responsibility of Chandra and her family seems to be a little too much.
But McIntosh pointed out that Chandra helps out Rampersaud.
“Society is not very kind…,” Mc Intosh commented again and at one point said she believes that Chandra’s husband is trying.
“It is just that he is not finding a job. My reading of him is he is trying, and he is with her. He has remained and takes her to clinic…,” McIntosh further said.
There are many Chandras out there and McIntosh said the major difficulty facing them is the lack of access to education. While this goes also for men, she said that it is extremely difficult for women to become financially independent and this opens them to abuse.
“For the deaf themselves, one of the biggest challenges, is the inability to get a job. To get a job that pays them to survive. When they leave school they are so poorly equipped and don’t have access to vocational school, even though efforts are being made, it is still very, very hard,” McIntosh said.
And she said while there is a belittling attitude by members of the public it is really because of a lack of understanding as she finds that generally the hearing society is receptive and very willing but the culture positive interaction is lacking.
McIntosh hopes Chandra’s husband finds a job shortly and if they have to move, for them to find a home as well.
As we left the Lusignan location, Rampersaud was seated on the same bench with the baby girl next to her and Chandra was fetching in the groceries. They all made a sad picture in front of the decrepit house that is in dire need to repair or maybe being torn down and rebuilt.
If you want to assist Chandra or help her husband with employment, please contact the Deaf Association on telephone number 225-4489.
