A Black Water, Region One family was forced to scamper for assistance after their relative died in Georgetown, highlighting the difficulties many persons who reside in the hinterland face when it comes to transporting the bodies of their loved ones back to their communities.
Aubrey Augustus Thomas of Black Water died at the Georgetown Public Hospital two Sundays ago. He had been hospitalised for two weeks at the medical institution after he suffered a stroke and was air-dashed to the city.
The family first approached the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs (MOIPA) but was told that they could get no financial assistance. In desperation Thomas’ son, Evlon Thomas, sought the assistance of the opposition PPP which provided them with money to transport the body back to the Region One (Barima/Waini) community. Party officials also reached out to the Ministry and a senior MOIPA official undertook the responsibility of ensuring payment to prepare the body for travel. Stabroek News understand that Sandy’s Funeral Home, which prepared the body, also reduced the cost of their service to accommodate the transportation of the body.
The body was on the ferry to Kumaka, Mabaruma on Wednesday and was due to arrive the following day.
Evlon was fearful that if the body was not taken back to the community, they would have had to await the ferry that goes to Kumaka early next year. Burying the body in the city was not an option for them.
Recounting the events, Evlon and his uncle, Martin Thomas told Stabroek News on Tuesday that they were desperate for assistance and someone advised that if they could not get help from Government, maybe the PPP would help them.
Evlon said his father had suffered a stroke about two weeks ago and was flown to the city. “I was to come out with him, but I had no money. In the community we had no money,” he said.
Passage
To gain passage to Georgetown, he said, he went to his uncle, Martin, in Warapoka to get some help.
“We had to go and work over that side. We work is like cabbage work. We cut the cabbage and take the cabbage to the boat and we get lil money and we come across this side to see my father,” he said. Unable to speak as he was overcome with emotion, his uncle Martin, who said he does not know Georgetown, recalled that he travelled with Evlon who also knew nothing about the city.
They arrived at Parika last Saturday night, he said, and travelled to Georgetown early the next morning. At the hospital, they were told that Evlon’s father had died at 4am and the body was moved to the mortuary.
Since then, the two had been trying to see what financial help they could get from the communities of Black Water and Warapoka in Region One to return the body to the community but to no avail.
“We came with a little money just to bring us out here and to move around but not to do more. We ask all around from Warapoka community, Black Water community (found in the Upper Baima River) and that is the only place we ask for assistance to carry back the body. Evlon’s mother is requesting for the body to be taken to Mabaruma but there is no finance,” Martin said.
He said a woman helped in seeking financial help to no avail. According to Martin, GPH Public Relations Officer Mitzy Campbell told them that the hospital would assist with a coffin and a body bag. Campbell, he said, advised them to go to junior Minister of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs, Valerie Garrido-Lowe for financial assistance. They went to the MOIPA and there a staffer told them they could not get help because all business has been closed off since December 15, he said. Stabroek News was unable to contact Garrido-Lowe for comment.
At the Ministry, they were advised to go to the Indigenous hostel to speak with a social worker which they did and were told by the social worker that she could not help.
With no other option, they went to Freedom House where the Executive Committee of the PPP had congregated for a meeting and they were able to meet with former Minister Pauline Sukhai and former permanent secretary in that Ministry Nigel Dharamlall. The party took the decision to help with transporting the body back to Region One.
Dharamlall said he was also able to contact a senior official in the MOIPA who undertook the responsibility to ensure payment to prepare the body for travel. Sandy’s also agreed to provide their service at a reduced cost.
Meanwhile, Dharamlall also noted that the party had another report from Maria Ignacio, the mother of Charles Gregory Ignacio who died in September in the gold mines at Echerak in Region Eight. The parents heard of their son’s death and walked for five days from Karasabai in Region Nine to get to Echerak, but by the time they got there, his body had already been transported to Georgetown.
They travelled to Georgetown looking for the body and when they found it last week, it was in a decomposing state. The GPH and MOIPA, Maria Ignacio reported, told her there was nothing the family could do but bury her son’s body.
She has been asking for information about whether a post mortem has been performed on the body and the cause of death and no one wanted to tell her anything.
