When schools closed in March owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, nursery-school teacher Razanna Mohamed ensured that she remained connected to her students as she still wanted to cater to their educational needs as much as she could. She soon realized that some of them were in need of much more.
During her online Zoom classes Mohamed heard many complaints about parents not being able to adequately provide for their children as some had been laid off. Wanting to give more than a listening ear, she along with a friend prepared hampers and distributed them.
The number of those who were in need grew and exceeded Mohamed’s parents’ circle. Seeing this, another friend created a PayPal account and publicized their work on Facebook, which saw many persons donating to the account.
This meant more persons were being assisted and it was on a distribution journey that Mohamed met Shirley Arjune of Moleson Creek, fondly referred to as ‘Aunty Shirley’, who was living in deplorable conditions. The plight of the woman, whose husband has a mental disability, moved Mohamed and she immediately reached out to others who were also touched and wanted to assist. This resulted in Aunty Shirley and her family being gifted with a brand new two-bedroom house.
What started out as Mohamed just trying to assist the families of her students has now evolved into the soon-to-be-registered Rose for Relief non-profit organisation.
“I just wanted to help. So many parents were complaining that they did not even have food to give to their children and it really hurt me,” Mohamed told Stabroek Weekend in an interview.
The single mother of two said apart from her students, hampers were also distributed to the elderly and over the months to many more, with about 700 hampers being distributed since March.
The 35-year-old teacher of Number 78 Village Corriverton said she knows what poverty is as she experienced it while growing up and if she can make one day better for a child she will do so. That is the motivation that has kept her going all these months.
Aunty Shirley
Mohamed remembers the day she met Aunty Shirley and was almost moved to tears by the woman’s living conditions.
“I was not driving, someone else was driving and I could not even see the house, it was behind some bushes. So, I decided to stop to give a hamper and after seeing how she was living and hearing her story I had to do more,” she said.
Aunty Shirley told her that she lived with her husband, who could not work because of his illness, and two sons. One is 14 and he works on a cattle farm while the older one worked when work was available which was seldom because of the pandemic. Aunty Shirley herself worked as a domestic outside of the community but in recent months she also found no work.
Mohamed said the woman’s small kitchen was outside and she cooked on a crudely made fireside “and the things she had on the little table were few and it was not tidy.
“The house was like about four feet off the ground, but the back was sunken. It was like in the ground. When I go inside some of the boards on the floor was missing. In the house all she had was three mattresses on the ground with sheet and some clothes hang up in the windowsill and so…,” Mohamed said.
At that point she realised that she had to do more for the woman and her family, and she then asked her if she could videotape her plight in an effort to get some help for her.
“She started to cry and tell me that she would be happy to get some help… that same night I put up the video with Aunty Shirley and right away people start saying they would help,” she further shared.
That was three weeks ago and on August 12, Mohamed handed over the keys to the small two-bedroom wooden house that was erected for the woman and her family. She shared that just three days after she met the woman, the foundation for the house commenced as someone donated all the material for that aspect of the work. More donations poured in and the house was eventually completed and furnished with two beds and mattresses, gas and kerosene stoves, kitchen cupboard, kitchen utensils among other items. A toilet and bath, which the family did not have prior, were built in the yard and a standpipe was also installed as Aunty Shirley was forced to go three houses away to fetch water.
“Even now people still want to do more, and they say they would donate chairs and so on for the house…,” Mohamed said.
Grew up very poor
An emotional Mohamed said she was moved by Aunty Shirley’s plight because it reminded her of her mother and how poor she and her brother were as children.
“We lived in a small house, almost something like Aunty Shirley…,” she disclosed.
It was only in 2010 after she started working with the government as a teacher and she received her salary after seven months that Mohamed managed to assist her mother. And with the help of a friend she subsequently built a house, which she said is also similar to the one donated on Wednesday, for her mom. By then she was married and living on her own and had taken her brother to live with her.
“When I met Aunty Shirley it reminded me about my family home, her son was exact same age like my brother and I know how it feels to be living poverty,” the woman said, sobbing as she recalled her childhood days.
Knowing how it felt, Mohamed said, she was determined to make a difference for the woman.
Mohamed said her father was an alcoholic and seldom contributed financially to the family. He was also abusive to her mother who worked as a domestic to help care for her children. After writing the CXC examination Mohamed starting working as a librarian at a secondary school to assist her mother.
“Because of our condition at home I got married very young, at the age of 18 and I moved out and took my brother with me and after he wrote CXC he went back home when the house rebuilt…” the woman said.
Today he lives overseas and is married with his own children and while her father has since died, Mohamed said, her mother still lives in the house, which is located about ten minutes away from her.
“I check up on my mother, but she prefers to live by herself, she loves her independence and that is fine with me.”
Mohamed shared that she became pregnant at 18 and shortly after she left her librarian job, but two years later she started to teach at an Islamic school before entering the public service teaching profession in 2010 as a nursery-school teacher and she remains there today.
“Since I am teaching the little children I would always try to do my little and help out where I can. Some parents would neglect their children, they could do better, and this makes me angry because it is the children who suffer. But the most I can do is help where I can and talk to the parents,” she said sadly.
Mohamed said she also ensures that she stands up for her children as she wants them to grow up to be strong independent adults. She recalled in November last year her daughter was bullied by some of her schoolmates.
“But I ensured I reported it and fought for my child and once she [realised] I was on her side she has been okay. We reported the matter to the authorities, but nothing really came out of it and then there was COVID and she already write CXC and don’t have to go back to that school, so we would just move on,” the mother said.
Campaigned
Prior to the March 2 elections, Mohamed campaigned for the Change Guyana party, but she said she is not sure she is a politician, she just wants to see change in Guyana.
“I would like to see more poor persons, everybody really, especially single mothers, own a piece of a land. If they have a piece of land then they can get help to build a house or they can build a little thing and then add on as time go by. Too many people living in shacks and under deplorable conditions, too many people paying rent and now with COVID a lot of people don’t have jobs and can’t pay their rent,” Mohamed said.
Mohamed also believes that some women are making too many children and wants contraceptives to become more easily available.
Told that contraceptives are available at health clinics, she said that from talking with some women she was told they are not always available, and others claim that they still get pregnant even though they are using contraceptives.
“I would like to see if a woman has five children, regardless of how young she is, if she requests to be tied off then she should be allowed and not told she is too young. Because many of the mothers can’t support the children and it is the children who suffer. Some of them cannot even provide food for the children,” she said sadly.
She said recently she met a 35-year-old woman who has ten children.
“Their living conditions are not very good. She has a husband, but he drinks, and the children are suffering…,” she said of the family.
Mohamed has seen much since March 2 and she wants to do her part to change Guyana, hence the establishment of Rose for Relief.
“I want to help more people… I want to see women, especially single women, live decent lives, have comfortable homes, even if it is small it should be furnished. I have a lot of people who are reaching out to me and I will do what I can to help,” Mohamed pledged.
