Thirty-one years ago, Fiona Harewood fled the country of her birth to escape an abusive husband and over the years has worked herself up from cleaning houses to being employed with the US Federal Government.
The tragic stories of teenagers who were both rejected by their families as a result of their HIV positive status are what pushed Dr Niccollette Boatswain to join in the fight against the virus in Guyana.
The first ten months of 2019 saw some 3,752 reported cases of child abuse and while there is much more to be done, the country has come a far way in relation to the response to the scourge, Director of the Child Care & Protection Agency (CC&PA) Ann Greene says.
“For me, just getting a new start is good enough. I ain’t really putting no meaning to New Year’s Day but I just happy that in the new year I not the same way I start out and for that I just thanking God.
Two years ago, he travelled miles to surprise one of his two daughters for her birthday, but the conditions under which he found his daughters living broke his heart and with the permission of their mom, he moved them to the city in the hope of giving them a better life.
“Security guards work under terrible conditions and not just where you work, but also there is sometimes no paid leave… If you call in sick you are not paid.
When Simone Poole was seven-years-old, she had a collision with a schoolmate that left her immobile for more than a day and after she regained movement in her legs, her gait was never the same.
“I have been living 22 years with HIV and if you look at me you cannot tell but I would not tell any and everybody that I have HIV because the stigma and discrimination is not nice and so I just trying to live my life,” the 46-year-old mother of six told me.
When Asif Khan walked across the stage at the University of Guyana’s (UG) convocation to collect his degree in International Relations (IR) just over a week ago, he believed it was not a victorious moment for him but one for other persons with disabilities.
Two years after she graduated as a general practitioner, Dr Latoya Gooding requested to join the Oncology Department of the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) and the suffering of cancer victims propelled her to do more than treat their symptoms and help to make their stay at the institution bearable.