A Venezuelan family of six, residing at Cornelia Ida, West Coast Demerara is struggling to survive under the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) lockdown and are thankful for their kind neighbours.
Rebecca and her husband, Alex who have four daughters, sought refuge here four years ago to escape the country’s financial crisis.
The couple cannot speak English, which has been a major setback, but Alex managed to get part-time jobs, mainly as a porter or carpenter.
Since the lockdown for COVID-19, he has not earned but he and his family are surviving with help from compassionate neighbours.
He finds it hard to pay the rent of $20,000 for a tiny one-bedroom bottom flat and to feed his family.
When SN contacted the family on a neighbour’s phone, one of the children was translating.
The neighbour, who is a janitorial worker, would remember them when she does her weekly market shopping and buys vegetables and “whatever I can afford, for them.”
She said too that a relative also gives her a small amount of money to purchase groceries for the family. Even though it is not enough, the family “try to make much with that…”
She told Stabroek News (SN), “Sometimes when I cook and I have extra I does give them. Or I does take the children to the shop and buy bread and so for them.”
She cannot “bear to see them punishing. I went through punishment and I know what is it.” She would also “tell other people” about their situation and ask them to go and help out.
Meanwhile, the pandemic has forced many businesses to be closed and some employees to stay at home. This has caused many people to suffer financially and psychologically.
Kind-hearted citizens have been donating food hampers and face masks to families across the country.
The recipients are grateful for the assistance as it would go a long way in ensuring their families are fed.
Sharon, a 29-year-old single mother of two boys, also of Cornelia Ida is also facing hardship.
She would normally sell clothing from a stall on the roadside and would keep the boys with her. But now with no income, she can barely make ends meet.
Soorsattie ‘Lilly’ Chandrapaul and her family of Meten-Meer-Zorg, WCD, have also been hit hard from the effects of the shutdown.
She was distressed about how they were going to survive because their main means of livelihood was already on hold for about two months.
That had also exhausted “the little savings we had and I don’t know what we gon do now. This is really hard, I never faced something like this.”
Chandrapaul’s husband operates their fishing boat. They would wholesale the catch to middlemen.
Some other fishermen have tried working but when they take the fish to the market, not many people could afford to buy.
They would end up giving most of the fish away.
With the count of COVID-19 patients rising, Chandrapaul was “afraid of the virus” and would avoid contact with too many people.
A mother of four, she said one of her children who was working in Georgetown had to quit her job because of the risk of being exposed to the virus while travelling with public transportation.
The woman said she had bills to pay and that her internet services was already disconnected.
She did not have much savings because she had invested money in the fishing business. She was willing “to sell something just to get money to survive. I don’t know how long this would last…
It is very frustrating because when you cook now you don’t know where the next meal is coming from.”
She said too that the shops are taking advantage of the situation. Just after the lockdown she purchased a hand sanitizer for $1500 that is usually sold for $100.
After that she decided to make her own, using vinegar and rubbing alcohol.
A can of Lysol spray that was sold for $900 now costs $4000. Garlic has increased from $240 to $500 per pound.
Something raise
“Every day you go to the supermarket something raise. You can’t buy everything you normally buy, just the most important things and for me that is rice, oil and salt,” she said sadly.
She is barely “scraping the last” of her money and her supplies are running out.
She was thankful that vegetables are sold at a “reasonable price from a van that does drive around…”
Not far away, Dhanwantie was suffering a similar fate. Her husband who works on a fishing trawler with a company in Georgetown has to stay home until the pandemic is over.
She said that they are struggling daily to make ends meet and to take care of their three children, ages five, seven and 14-years-old. So far she has not received assistance from anyone.
They hardly have money to purchase food and said, “I can’t cook like before …no money to buy chicken.”
She lives close to the koker where the boats come in and she would “get some shrimps… But me na like go too often and badda dem.”
She too said the vegetables that are sold on the van are “very cheap.”
She too tries to avoid direct contact with people after learning that with her underlying diabetic and hypertensive conditions, the virus would be severe if she contracts it.
“I just hope and pray for the virus die away because everybody stall up,” she told this newspaper. “We really want this thing to end.”
