Oluatoyin Alleyne

The telephone on my desk rang. I answered and was informed that I had a visitor.

If Laurel Gittins had her way, 36 years ago she would have become a nurse as that was her dream.

“My father put me out and now he say he will tek back me son, but he don’t want me back at the house.

Anthony Daniels lives on the streets and before now his meals often came from garbage bins, yet when he was asked to “stray” a dog for a fee he could not find it in his heart to follow through and instead made the dog his friend and companion.

“I wanted to die,…. I remember one time going to the harbour bridge at about three one morning with every intention of jumping over and this policeman pulled me over and he sat in the car and just talked to me.

December 13, 2017 is a day that will remain etched forever in the mind of 22-year-old Shadica Dublin.

Growing up Laurence Bakhsh and his brother Lloyd struggled to understand their condition and it was even more difficult for them to explain it to their peers many of whom taunted them and believed that someone had worked obeah on them.

“I am disappointed, and for me from my point of view I wouldn’t encourage nobody right now to go and try to get justice because if she did not get justice I don’t who could.

As I entered St George’s Cathedral the sweet notes of “You Raise Me Up” on piano greeted my ears and then I spotted him seated infront of the musical instrument, swaying gently to the sounds his deft fingers created.

“Look just give meh a knife and leh meh kill meh self.

At 81 years old Sarifari Persaud better known as ‘Aunty Lily’ is content with a life of spending time with her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, which entails travelling overseas, and taking care of her flowers and dog.

“I would close up like around 10 sometimes, you know, because people coming from work does stop and buy.

Alicea Dias’s life was snuffed out over 20 years ago when an allegedly drunken driver knocked her off of her motorbike, but the years have not lessened her mother’s pain even though the tragedy gave her a voice she never thought she had.

“It was too overbearing and sometimes you feel like a slave in you own country and one day I just couldn’t take it anymore and me and another girl we just have to stand up fuh we rights.

Carjacked in a foreign country, an experience that saw a gun placed at the head of her three-year-old daughter; raped by a colleague and having her father falsely accused and prevented from leaving Guyana for nine years are just some of the terrible experiences Cheryl Noel has had in her life, but instead of becoming bitter she is on a mission to help the younger generation.

“Being a single parent has it positives and  its negatives. For me I have learnt to look past the fact that I am a single parent because honestly sometimes I don’t even remember that these children have a father.”

In 2015, Rodell Hinds had a visual inspection of cervix with acetic acid (VIA) done and cancerous cells were detected and presumably treated through cryotherapy, with follow-up treatment done the following year.

It was out of the need to connect with Guyanese who were interested in seeing films by Guyanese and Caribbean filmmakers that the Timehri Film Festival was born three years ago, according to Romola Lucas, one of its founders.

By Oluatoyin Alleyne and Bebi Oosman Cervical cancer patient Arlene Tyndall, who succumbed just over a week ago, was diagnosed with late stage cervical cancer last August but because of her low blood count, treatment was not immediately administered.

Just days after what many would have considered the happiest day of her life, Donessa Barker was burnt with hot water.