With many lives impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous Guyanese have since united to make lives easier for the less fortunate through donations of food hampers, medical supplies and other necessities. Abbigale Loncke is one of them. Loncke, the founder of the WeLead Caribbean non-governmental organisation as well as one of the executive members of the Essequibo Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ECC), has been one of the driving forces behind a number of humanitarian drives in Region Two with the assistance of several organisations, the business community and many individuals in and outside of Guyana.
With the restrictions put in place to contain the spread of the virus resulting in some being left without jobs and unable to sustain their families, Loncke and numerous other persons joined forces to provide families with necessities. An average of thirty communities along the Essequibo Coast have so far benefitted from the work done.
Among the many villages on the coast that benefitted from the donations were several indigenous communities, including those across the three of the five lakes on the Essequibo Coast – Mashabo, Capoey and Lake Mainstay. In addition to these communities, other Amerindian communities along the Pomeroon River were provided with food hampers. WeLead Caribbean and the ECC have already accumulated another set of these hampers for several other indigenous communities, including Bethany, St. Monica, Akawini, Wakapao and Kabakaburi. These are expected to be distributed on Monday. Loncke explained that because of restricted access to Amerindian communities owing to the pandemic, persons from these villages are required to uplift the packages. For Lake Mainstay, hampers were sent with the community’s health care team.
The two organizations heard of many stories of single parents struggling at this time. One such story was that of a single-parent mother of four who lost her job. Unable to pay rent they had to leave their home but were fortunate as some kind persons provided them a place to live for the time being. Loncke shared that it was related to them by this mother that a team of persons who visited her community to distribute food hampers ignored her family, which she felt has to do with the family staying in a “big house”. It was further related that the woman explained that while she has a huge house, she has nothing in it to feed her children. On Friday morning Loncke said there had already been a food hamper set aside for the woman and her family within a matter of hours of the woman contacting Loncke.
“I have had some fathers also reach out to me for assistance. They are labourers who lost their jobs because of the pandemic. For me, men don’t often reach out for help, I guess because of pride or whatever else it might be but when a man reaches out for help, I jump at that because he has to be on his very last to do that”, Loncke said.
Suddie Hospital as well as the Oscar Joseph Hospital (Charity Hospital) also received medical supplies that were also donated.
For the donations to the hospitals, Loncke’s colleague, Suean Seewnarayan, also the Vice President of the ECC, spearheaded the efforts to get donors to provide the needed medical supplies. The quest to find donors came after the hospitals made known their low supplies of the necessary items. According to Loncke, there was no tallying of the overall cost of medical supplies that have been donated so far but she mentioned that they would be valued in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. In addition, the hospitals received other medical supplies, such as facemasks, alcohol rubs, cleaning supplies, gowns, caps, face shields, etc., through the contribution of a number of pharmacies on the Essequibo Coast as well as companies like Overland Group, Amerijet, and Barakat Timbers Limited. The hospitals have yet again made requests for more medical supplies.
Helping women
WeLead Caribbean was founded in 2017. Their mission is to help as many women become economically free in Guyana as well as around the Caribbean. Currently there are six persons that are a part of the administration’s team while there are some 37 members, all entrepreneurs with local and Caribbean-based businesses. Since 2017, the NGO has organised a number of conferences in Guyana aimed at women. Last year’s workshop was said to be the largest since it was founded and was headlined by singer Beyonce Knowles- Carter’s publicist, Yvette Noel Schure, who was the keynote speaker.
This year WeLead Caribbean had partnered with ExxonMobil for a series women’s workshops on the Essequibo Coast. The series started in January but was halted two weeks prior to completion as a result of COVID-19’s arrival in Guyana. Loncke noted that 42 women were involved in these workshops and they were being trained to make their businesses better. There was a planned startup pitch competition for the women at the end of the workshops but all did not go as planned. Loncke assured that once conditions allow, then the competition will be resumed. Several of the winners of this competition will be given cash grants while some will win a chance to get help with marketing their businesses.
Along with Essequibo’s training workshops, WeLead Caribbean had also collaborated with US State Department and 3D Startup to facilitate Agro-Tourism training at Wales, West Bank Demerara. This workshop began in March but was also suspended due to COVID-19.
“What we set out to do was to help women but over the last couple of months we have pivoted into helping out this way. We have had to learn to adapt so not being able to do what we had initially planned is not a big concern at the moment as we’re still trying to be of service however we can. We’ve always set out to help and now more than ever organisations are needed to show their humanitarian side,” Loncke said.
“Our mission right now as women in businesses is to help businesses bounce back and come out even stronger than this and because both male and female parties have suffered due to the pandemic we are catering to help as many entrepreneurs as we can”, she added.
Loncke’s fulltime job is serving as director of Abbi’s Home Care Agency, which was founded in 2016. As its name states, it provides homecare specifically for the elderly. Currently, 18 families and individuals from Georgetown and Berbice are under the agency’s care. According to Loncke, they have taken the same women who are single parents and have trained them and provided them jobs in caring for the elderly.
Abbi’s Home Care Agency is the only local agency that she knows of that was awarded by former United States president, Barrack Obama. In 2016, Loncke through the US Embassy got the opportunity to attend the YLAI (Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative) conference held in Peru. The YLAI program assists young entrepreneurs between the ages of 21 and 35 with their businesses. President Obama who was present during this conference made mention of Loncke’s agency as well as two other businesses owned by Haitian and Puerto Rican nationals. She was one of several entrepreneurs to be presented with the Young Leaders of the America’s Initiative Award. She posited that it was this honour and experience that changed her life and led to her founding the WeLead Caribbean NGO in the following year.
Loncke is also the founder of business MBW Energy Support Services. MBW is the acronym for Mikhail Bakari Watson, the names of her two-year-old son. It is her way of leaving him an avenue for income when he is older. MBW Energy Support Services is a corporation that provides relocation services for employees of the oil and gas sector by helping them to get settled in the country. The corporation also facilitates maintenance management, procurement of materials and training in the oil and gas sector as well as construction.
“This is my passion. I’ve been an entrepreneur since 2013. I’ve always looked for areas that I have a niche for and see how best I can fit in”, Loncke said.
Presently, she noted, donations have declined owing to persons adapting to the impacts of COVID-19 but persons are still donating. Loncke wishes to acknowledge all those who would have contributed towards their efforts big or small and encourages those who can support this venture to do so.
The list of donors, Loncke said, is long but she did single out Bandar Restaurant at Anna Regina, which has been consistently donating and has also done food sales where the proceeds were given towards purchasing the required items for the food hampers; IAST (Institute of Applied Science and Technology), which donated 2,000 boxes of Morning Glory rice cereal; Jaigobin Supermarket; Multicare Pharmacy; Guyana Premier, which provided blood glucose test strips that went to diabetics residing at Lake Mainstay; Devon Rannauth, a Guyanese based in Canada whose contributions catered for two villages on the Essequibo Coast; and AmCham.
Persons wishing to donate or know someone who may be in need can contact Loncke on her Facebook page or at 648-4302.
