A single dad and his two daughters who have been almost homeless have been given a second chance by businessman Sattaur Gafoor, who not only renovated a house for the family but assisted with some furnishings to make it a home.
Gafoor, who is the Executive Chairman of A Gafoor & Sons Ltd, told Stabroek Weekend that he was touched by the family’s plight, especially that of the two young girls, and he felt compelled to do something to make their lives better.
“I don’t have any girl children and when I saw them, I was really moved. They are two beautiful children and I just wanted to give them a chance,” the businessman said.
His company renovated and repainted the building and replaced the electrical fittings. He then surprised the girls with beds, computers, computer desks and chairs.
“We have been doing works like these for years…,” Gafoor further said, disclosing that apart from the house they repaired they also built three homes for other families this year, one in Mahaicony, one on the East Coast and another on the West Coast. He said his company will continue to give back to society.
Gafoor also offered the father work whenever there are painting jobs available since that is his skill.
“I would love to work with that company, you know. Especially because they give back to society and help people. So, when I get a chance, I will take it,” the father said of the offer.
Last year, Stabroek Weekend had reported that the father indicated that two years ago, he had travelled miles to surprise one of his two daughters for her birthday and found them living in appalling conditions.
In December 2017, he moved them to the city but since then he had hit a difficult patch, which led to him and his daughters becoming almost homeless. The man had shared that as he attempted to navigate securing assistance, he concluded that the system was not set up to support men.
He believed, and still does, that were he a single mother, more would have been done for him. A woman he referred to as his “guardian angel”, Sandra Khan, had also indicated that she witnessed his downward spiral, which at times saw him to turn to alcohol for solace.
“There is a section in society of [men] who are invisible, and they need some visibility,” Khan had said at the time of the interview.
She had referred to the father, whom she said she met through a mutual friend, as not being lazy and finding work wherever he could.
“But whenever he does not have money he is in a state of desperation and I don’t know where in Guyana people like this can get help. Poor people are in a desperate state. We are not doing social protection; we are doing prosecution. We need to address this issue and our politicians need to do more,” she had said at the time.
It was in her desperate need to assist the family, whom she was forced to give lodging after they were put out of the apartment they lived in, that Khan wrote Mr Gafoor and sent him a copy of the newspaper’s article in January.
She said within five minutes of dropping off the letter and article she received a call from the businessman.
“I was shocked at how quickly he called. After we spoke, he sent an engineer to look at the property and right away they started working on it, they did everything. It was an old house, they did the plumbing and the wiring and everything,” Khan related.
The father had told this newspaper he was given permission to occupy the house by his father, but it was in a dilapidated condition. The family had hoped that the building would have been repaired by the Ministry of Social Protection but when the estimate, which was to the tune of $2 million, was giving to the ministry they were told that it could not cover the cost.
But a jubilant Khan said that Gafoor contributed to the children’s education and has indicated they he would assist them in their schooling as both expressed to him how eager they were to learn. She said the family moved into the renovated home at the end of last month.
Last year, Khan had accused the Child Care and Protection Agency (CCPA) of not doing enough for single fathers. But Head of the agency, Ann Greene had responded that Khan wanted to have it her way and wanted to set out how much support the agency should give to the man and his children. “How are we supposed to pay a rent of $75,000 for one person?” Greene had asked at the time.
She pointed out there are a lot of poor people who are in need of assistance “and because we have not helped him in the way she wants us to help him, we are the worst. We have to examine the case and do it in a proper way and right now it is going to be done through the court,” she added.
She had pointed out that the agency was prepared to take the children into care but Khan baulked at the suggestion, and stated that she was prepared to assist the man and his children as she did not believe institutional care was the best thing for the girls, who were excelling in school.
To Khan’s claim that agency officials had not listened to her or the father, Greene had said persons only felt they were listened to when officials took their side and she stressed that she was a “man-oriented woman” as her father played a significant role in her life.
Last week Khan said the solution could never have been to put the children into institutional care and this suggestion, she said, overwhelmed the father.
“I feel very relieved and overjoyed and that is putting it mildly, they are comfortable, safe, secured and they are in their own space,” she said.
‘Really great’
The father of the children, whose identity remains anonymous to protect the identity of the children, related that he was overjoyed by Mr Gafoor’s generous assistance.
“I feel really great. I am stress less now. Mr Gafoor really bring joy to this this family, he saved this family, saved a single father from going out there and doing wrong things… He saved two girl children,” the man said to this newspaper.
He said he and his daughters were in dire straits and Mr Gafoor answered their prayers and turned the building into a home for them.
“This man is a God send and what this man do is what the Ministry of Social Protection should be doing… I have not even gotten a phone call from these people and because of that I become rebellious because there is no system set up to help a single father,” the father said.
He said as a single father he is playing the role of mother and father and he believes he should have been assisted in whatever way possible to ensure that he became a better parent for his daughters.
“People are not getting help from the system. I am a single father, did not even get a bag of rice or a bottle of oil from these people,” he said.
Greene had told this newspaper that the issue with the man and the children would go to the Family Court because the mother, who has two younger children, indicated that she wanted the children to be placed in her care.
However, the father said last week that the mother is no longer fighting for the children and she calls and speaks to them and whenever she is in Georgetown, she is allowed to spend time with them.
The father himself had a fractured relationship with his mother. This situation had led to him being evicted from the apartment he had shared with the girls in her building and for a period they were forced to live with Khan. They were in a rented apartment being supported with rent.
His mother has since died in the US and the father said he was happy he got to speak with her before she died.
“I spoke to her a few days before she died, we spoke for a couple minutes well and you know she went off well. She died from cancer, but she did not punish before she die, and I was happy for that. I loved my mother very much,” he said.
He noted that growing up his mother was a single parent who never left her children with anyone but preferred to struggle with them and gave them the best she could.
“She never leave or forsake us. And now my family is a broken family and I get that strength from my mom to be there for my children. She is the meaning of parenthood. I will never leave my kids and gone I would make sure they are okay. I don’t want that cycle going around. I want to break that cycle,” the father continued.
“There are a lot of single fathers out there, but men don’t want to talk and say what is going on but inside it is a whole different ball game. The ministry needs to look into single fathers, not just single mothers,” he pleaded.
In working with the family, Khan said, she has learnt about the system and about where people can get support and where they cannot. “It was a fight, but it was a learning experience,” she said.
She sees assisting the children as breaking the cycle of poverty and ignorance as by educating the girls they can now go on to live better lives.
“That is what needs to be done, that is where the focus should be. We could do better in one generation if this happens, educating the children. But the corruption is the problem, things are not being streamlined and funding not going where it should be,” she claimed.
“The whole nation needs emotional intelligence training, but it is a long road. We need more psychology specialists to work with people,” she said, referring specifically to the father whom she said needs that sort of assistance.
“But there is hope for the future,” Khan said.
