Shieldstown, West Bank Berbice serves as a haven for its more than 1,500 residents. To get to this village, one would need to take a bus or car from the Berbice car or bus park in Georgetown to the Rosignol Stelling and then another car into the village. The distance is 107 kilometres from the city.
Shieldstown residents depend on fishing, farming and working at the Blairmont Sugar Estate for their livelihood. The village is said to have existed since the 1970s, when land was given to people living in another community called Rampoor. According to residents, the people who lived in Rampoor were descendants of indentured immigrants from India who worked on the sugar plantations.
“I was born in Rampoor,” Mohamed Nazool shared. “Here was cane field. We come out to live here in 1974 time. Nobody was living in this part then. The people who live in Rampoor was workers from the estate. After the train stop run, transportation was hard to come out from in there and if any of the women go into labour, it wasn’t easy to get them out from there.”
