“It’s very stressful being unemployed. I ain’t getting assist from nowhere I was unemployed… about a month now. I used to do domestic [work] but since the ‘corona,’ I get send off,” Kemandra Kendell says.
Kendell is a single mother of two and one of the many persons who are currently struggling to make ends meet in wake of the restrictions now in place to safeguard the populace following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) here.
Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, many countries have been forced to take extreme measures to keep citizens healthy and safe and in Guyana this has seen the suspension of non-essential services, which has left some persons jobless and with little to no means of carrying on with their day to day lives.
Living in a household where children need to be fed and stocks are running short as the days go by without employment and little to no assistance, Kendell told Sunday Stabroek that since being laid off in March she has been trying to avoid constantly stressing about her current employment status. “I was wondering how we gon’ get we next meal,” she said as she recounted the events of her layoff. “The people I was employed with said not to bother coming in for work. I could not say anything to that—the people are being cautious about their health,” she added.
She said that before the spread of the disease in the country, she was working to provide for her extended household, which consists of her two daughters, both below the ages of ten, her mother and sister, as well as her sister’s son. As a single mother with so many persons to support, she shared her guilt at being unemployed. “It’s very stressful being unemployed,” she said before adding that she feels ‘‘bad’’ because she was the only person in her home with a job before.
As a means to end her uncertainty about how she will provide for her children, Kendell said that she intends to send them to spend some time with their father while she, her mother and sibling stay at home and continue doing what is necessary to stay safe and healthy. “My mother cooks and we clean and so on. There isn’t much else to do,” she said.
Kendell, who now spends her days studying with her children, tries to remain indoors at all times and only leaves when it is completely necessary. This mainly includes shop trips. But she explained that she feels reassurance knowing that her children will be more comfortable staying with their father, who is employed.
The family is relying on her mother’s pension and she mentioned that her sister has children abroad who occasionally send money for her. This, she said, they will also have to rely on until she can find work again. Kendell explained that she will be grateful to find work but given the seriousness of the disease, she will wait until it is safe to begin her job search.
‘I had to shut down completely’
Ladonna Richardson, a makeup artist from Vreed-en-Hoop, had hopes of expanding her business before the disease entered Guyana. Instead, she has since had to close her doors. Richardson opened her makeup studio six months prior. She added that it was fully restocked with cosmetics and hair products just before the elections. However, she had closed shop on the day of the polling, March 2, which was declared a national holiday, but she remained closed after as persons were not shopping much and many places were not opening due to the elections controversy. She expected businesses to reopen once things in the country were settled but that did not happen and the measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 have restricted work to essential workers only. “The lockdown affected my business big time because I had to shut down completely,” she told Sunday Stabroek.
In addition to having to close, Richardson was left no choice than to stop paying the rent for her studio at Vreed-en-Hoop. Losing her studio, she said, was very disappointing but she saw no other option since she was not getting any business, therefore she had to discontinue the rent payments. She said that the uncertainty of when the measures will be lifted forced her to take a major step back in her business and career.
Now, Richardson and her three children mostly stay indoors and they avoid going outside because they reside on a property with two other families. Her husband, being the only person employed in the home, still goes to work. Richardson’s husband is employed as a maintenance man at the Pegasus Hotel. There, she said, they maintain strict measures to prevent the spread and/or contraction of COVID-19. She also said that even though her husband has to work every day, he follows the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines to ensure his family is safe from contracting the disease. “He wears his mask, uses hand sanitizer and when he gets home he would remove his clothing outside and we would disinfect it before he enters the house and heads right for the bathroom. He doesn’t socialize with us until he has done that,” she assured.
In addition, Richardson said that her children are fortunate to have an aunt who is a teacher and class teachers who have been interacting with them via WhatsApp to get their school work done. She sits with them and tries to guide them while they do their studies to occupy her time. She further noted that she has taken up reading, which she has always enjoyed, to occupy herself. Richardson also said that as she and her family try to be optimistic, she mostly wants people to “just stay home” because the disease will be contained faster and people like her can get back to doing what they love.
Separation
Allison Bacchus, 37, worked from her home, running a small catering business. However, there are no events to cater for now. “There is no business right now. It has been difficult because I’m not getting to do anything as before. But my husband works, he does gold mining so we are managing,” Bacchus told Sunday Stabroek.
While Bacchus is home and without work, her main worry is the dislocation of her family. Her two older sons, who had travelled to the United States in December, are still there with their aunt.
Bacchus said that being so many miles away from her children during this time has left her in constant state of worry. One of the boys celebrated his eighteenth birthday recently, while another son who is working in the interior also recently celebrated a birthday. She said that although they are not with each other, she tries to speak with her sons and ensure they are safe as often as possible.
To pass the time at home, Bacchus stays busy with reading and helping her Common Entrance-level son work on past papers, while his class teachers send work via WhatsApp. She noted that her son is currently missing his classroom and was excited to be writing the National Grade Six Exam but has no choice now but to wait until he can. As for her, she remains hopeful, she said, while adding that although she cannot say whether the disease will “go away” soon, she is trying to do all that she can to avoid contracting it.
‘Essential’
Amidst the COVID-19 restrictions, some persons have found themselves classed “essential” workers, whose health and safety have become constant worries for them. A 21-year-old, who asked not to be named, shared his experience while working as the disease continues to spread in the country.
The young man said that when information was initially released, the insurance company he works at made the decision to have persons rotate shifts. “Persons were asked to work half day and [were] not required to return to work until their next shift, which was usually a day apart. This was happening for almost a month before they changed the shift work to having all the employees come in to work but only work half day,” he said.
He added that the half-day work has put pressure on workers to get tasks done faster and pointed out that most of his coworkers preferred when there were fewer persons gathering in the building at the same time. However, he said, his main concern is that the company is not providing masks for their employees even though they have many persons gathering daily. He added that the company hasn’t demanded that persons get their own masks either.
Meanwhile, as the emergency measures have been extended into a second full month, food security and persons’ ability to remain economically solvent during this time is cause for concern for some.
Recently, “A Rapid Survey of Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices Related to Covid-19 in Guyana”, which was conducted by a team of volunteers working with The Consultancy Group (TCG), found that with unemployment growing within these households, a significant percentage is expecting to have COVID-19 impact their food security negatively.
The data, which was collected by 24 volunteers through 411 telephone interviews over the period March 28 to April 3 and was intended to make the concerns and perspectives of everyday Guyanese quickly accessible to decision-makers and responders, as they work to craft the best possible national response.
The survey found that since COVID-19 was detected in Guyana, unemployment among the respondents rose by 8.3 percentage points to 17.8%. In addition, income reduced or evaporated altogether for 39% of the respondents, and 20% and 36% of the respondents indicated that their personal income is likely to evaporate altogether or to become lower respectively in the future if the situation continues, respectively.
“With respect to the household, nearly 40% of the respondents indicated that income became lower and 6% said that they now have no household income at all. The respondents’ projections for the future if the situation continues indicate that 68% of the households will experience either reduced or complete loss of income,” the survey report states.
For some of those who are still employed, they have found that their income has been strained, while panic shopping has also become a habit for many seeking to avoid leaving home and who are unsure when normalcy will return. Many other persons have already noted that they have been unemployed and the numbers continue to grow and even though they try to remain calm, Kendell voiced the common frustration that the assistance is not there.
