Ten-year-old girls should be going to school and enjoying their childhood. Not Anita Pooranmal of Mahaicony Creek, she has to cook and care for her alcoholic father and her three younger siblings.
Stabroek News came across Anita and her siblings, eight-year-old Radesh; seven-year-old Retisha; and six-year-old Avinash at their Pine Ground home, during a recent visit to Mahaicony Creek. Their mother, 24-year-old Rosie, walked out on them a year ago owing to their father’s behaviour.
The children’s nails were long and dirty and their dingy clothing had seen better days. Lice were crawling out of Anita’s unkempt hair and the nits looked like beads. She said she could not cut her hair to get rid of the parasites, because her father did not want her to.
Though they hardly spoke, it was obvious from the children’s expressions that they yearn for a better life. Anita’s distressed face did not fit her petite body; it appears much older.
It was around 10.30 am and the children’s father, Gupta Pooranmal, 32, was already drunk and sleeping. Anita said he got up at 6 am, had a few shots of his rum and went back to bed.
The house they live in looks like it would fall at anytime and this newspaper learnt that a few zinc sheets had already been blown off by recent heavy winds.
Relatives said Gupta got help with materials to rebuild the house but he sold the materials to support his drinking habit.
He catches fish and birds for a living and would use just a little of the money to purchase groceries that have to last for a long time; the rest of the money is for rum.
They said too that he would go away for a few days to either hunt or drink, leaving hardly any food in the house for the children.
The relatives said they were sorry for the children and would give them food but at the moment they too were struggling and could hardly make ends meet because of the flood situation in the area.
Besides, they said, when Gupta knew the children were being taken care of he would behave more irresponsibly. The relatives said he would even curse them and tell them to mind their own business when they attempted to talk to him about his neglectful attitude.
Rice with
curried potatoes
Anita cooks on a fireside under the steps, standing in the floodwaters. Someone gave them a kerosene stove and when they happen to get kerosene she uses the stove. She said she was not afraid that the stove would flare up on her as she knows to use it well.
That morning she had cooked rice with curried potatoes for breakfast and lunch on the fireside and was planning to cook the same thing in the afternoon for dinner.
She said last week they did not have anything to cook until the government and an organization presented them with foodstuff. When there is nothing to cook, the child said, she would pick “lime leaf” from the neighbour’s tree. This she would boil to make ‘tea’ and serve to her siblings without milk or sugar.
The children would also climb fruit trees in the area in search of ‘food.’ Three months ago the youngest child, Avinash fell off a tree while climbing and broke his left arm.
His father who was fishing in the backdam at the time took him to the Georgetown Public Hospital when he returned home. The child’s hand was in a cast for a few weeks until he and his siblings removed the cast on their own.
Anita was forced to learn to cook on her own after their mother, Rosie walked out on them. She said she can cook roti and even explained how she cooks curry, when asked.
A relative told this newspaper, “What dem children this pass through, me na think a dog ever pass through. When dem don’t get food, dem does bear them chafe in that house.”
Rosie of Canal Number One Polder, West Demerara eloped with Gupta when she was just 14 years old. He had gone to the area to catch birds when he caught her attention as well.
During the time that she lived at Mahaicony Creek, she endured hardships from her reputed husband. She had even returned to her parents at Canal on a few occasions and at one time Gupta and the children moved there to live with her.
However, he misbehaved there as well and was rejected by her family. He returned home with the children and Rosie stayed and got involved with another man who also ill-treated her. She subsequently left him and returned to Mahaicony Creek to her family.
The woman worked as a domestic servant but Gupta, who gave her no money, demanded whatever earnings she got. His relatives recalled that the day that she walked out on him for good, was the third day that she had nothing in the house to cook. Gupta was drunk and had been sleeping when she left.
They later learnt that she crossed the creek to the left bank in a canoe and walked about seven miles on a dam to get to the main road. She sold two gold rings she had in her possession to get money to travel to Canal.
Shortly after she became involved with a man from Wales, West Demerara and is currently sharing a common-law relationship with him.
Asked if she and her siblings would like to go with her mother, Anita said no, she would like her mother to return home instead. She said too that despite their father being bad they liked him and would not want to leave him.
The children would rather prefer that their father get some form of help so that he could stop drinking so much. They are not attending school, but told this newspaper that they would be glad to go. However, their births were not registered.
Before leaving, this reporter asked to see Gupta and one of the children went to wake him up. He at first denied leaving the children alone for days, but then admitted, “me does only left them for two days.”
He said he cannot do strenuous work and showed this newspaper his right arm, which he said was broken two years ago when a relative hit him.
He said he catches fish and wildlife for a living but at the moment he could not do any work because the area was inundated.
Asked about the children not attending school the man claimed that after his wife left him he could not “afford” to send them and could not comb their hair for school. He promised to ease up his drinking habit and to take his role as father more seriously.
