Letter from Pat Persaud after her visit.
My first introduction to the Learning Centre was about 5 years ago when we were asked for books to equip its library. First, I rummaged through my own stash of books (accumulated over the years as a teacher) and those of my four children who are now adults. Then, I canvassed my friends and community. Finally, I went to garage sales and begged for their best prices on slightly used books. We gathered 14 boxes of gently used and new books which we sent off to the Centre.
In December 2012, my husband & I visited Guyana with the aim of spending a few days at the Centre. We observed its operation, met Mrs Sandra Shivdat, Mrs Shanney Persaud, the centre’s administrator and teachers, as well as many children and young adults at the Centre. I was thrilled to see some of the older girls who were helping two young boys to read.
We read the teachers’ and children’s stories of how the Centre had impacted their lives, given them hope, and offered them new realities. We saw firsthand how the children shared with their playmates and siblings during the Holiday Season Celebration. We smiled as children of various religious backgrounds joined hands to sing Christmas carols and perform in the Christmas pageant.
All the children welcomed my husband who is Guyanese and I, a French-Irish Canadian, with open hearts and minds. They seemed oblivious of the most obvious difference between myself and them and called Shanney who is Guyanese the ‘White Lady’ and me, the ‘Blue Eye Lady’. It wasn’t until later that Shanney told me that all that staring directed my way was due to my eye colour. That made me smile for days!
Over the next week, I followed Shanney and her husband through the community and delivered Christmas gifts of clothing that had been brought thanks to many overseas benefactors. We also bought gifts of food for several families and shared these as well. We met one family who had been assisted through the Centre and who were using new found skills to start up a music cd enterprise. Other people had used gifts of money to buy cows and chickens and raised these animals to feed their families and supplement their income.
The gifts we sent were being well used and many people in Lusignan and Goodhope are working to become independent and self-sufficient. Some young people who had previously left school now frequent the Centre and are being encouraged to resume their studies. One young man at the Centre, was in the top 10 highest CXC marks in all of Guyana, he graduated with 11 subjects all Grade 1(A). That is pretty impressive!
But for every success story, there is also another reality that is much more painful. As we were leaving the Centre one day, we stopped to speak to a young boy on a bike. As the conversation came to an end, and we moved on, Shanney turned to me and told me that the boy was eleven years old and had left school to work in a factory where they make furniture. His sister still went to the Centre and hopefully she will not be forced by circumstances and poverty to follow in her brother’s footsteps. We can only hope!
Going to Guyana and seeing how the Centre has impacted the community was a great experience and I would love to return and work more closely with the staff and students. I am also very interested in furthering the rights to a good education for all children in Guyana, helping them become more exposed to the technological advances that are so familiar to us in Canada and the United States and also, becoming involved in the plight of women and children who have been sexually exploited and then intellectually deprived because of this exploitation.
Regards
Patricia Persaud