Members of the Disabled People’s Network (DPN) of Region Five will finally have their own multipurpose building through a project undertaken by the Food for the Poor (FFP) organisation and are to establish a special needs school for the first time.
President of the DPN, Mark Archibald told Stabroek News that the school will start with 36 students at the new facility, located at Seafield, West Coast Berbice.
Members will also convert the large land space into an agricultural plot for the cultivation of vegetables, plantain, ground provision and fruits.
They would be processing and packaging plantain and eddo flour, preserved fruits, green seasoning, achar, pepper sauce, as well as dried fish and other items.
This would be undertaken via guidelines from the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute.
Members will also be continuing their skills training activities and economic ventures, that they had carried out for a number of years at the nearby community centre building.
Archibald said they are excited that they would finally have their own building but said it needs grilling and they cannot afford the cost to get it done.
He hopes that some kindhearted people would step in to help in that regard.
Archibald was optimistic that the new building, which has adequate space and is more convenient, would provide a lot of opportunities as they strive to make their lives better.
The DPN was established in 2008 with four members. It now consists of 60 members, a few of whom are shut-ins.
Fruition
The DPN had acquired the plot of land over six years ago under the People’s Progressive Party/Civic administration. The members raised funds and reached out to donors to take on the project but only received positive responses from FFP, which has brought it to fruition.
The organisation (FFP) would also be providing furniture and equipment for the facility.
With regards to the school, Archibald pointed out that many children with special needs “are left behind” and that it was always his dream to have an exclusive institution for them.
Some special needs students were placed at the No 8 Primary School, which lacked proper facilities to accommodate them.
Four members of the DPN are part of a management committee that includes the Deputy regional executive officer, a representative from the education department and the church.
Archibald was elated when the topic of having a special needs school housed at the DPN, was initiated during a stakeholders’ meeting.
The space that the DPN was occupying previously was inconvenient. They decided to approach then President Bharrat Jagdeo during one of his visits to West Berbice and felt special when he approved the funding to have it extended and to have a kitchen installed.
They would meet weekly for training but were unable to go since March because of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
Uplift
The purpose of the DPN, according to Archibald, is to: “Uplift the lives of people with disabilities… We want to develop our skills. There are no jobs in Guyana for people with disabilities so they have to be self-employed.”
According to him, before joining the DPN, members had “low self-esteem but they now feel more worthwhile. Persons with disability are unique in their way. Some are slow to do things but they end up getting things done.”
The DPN currently trains members in skills such as cooking, cake decorating, sewing, handicraft, block-making and information technology.
Apart from gaining skills, they are also helping to generate funds for the network so as to offset expenses.
A few years ago they launched the ‘Sweet Sleep Sheet Project’ to produce various sizes of bed sheet sets, some with tie-dye designs, to supply to customers on orders, mostly at Christmastime.
Three months before Christmas they would embark on ‘Project Step Up,’ that involves them getting busy producing the sheets, floral arrangements as well as knitting products for chair backs and coffee tables.
Even though the disabilities of members include hearing, speech, vision and physical impairment, they are all involved in the project.
“Every member would have a task,” Archibald said. “And not because we have disability it (products) should be untidy. We try to do it professionally. We are not 100 per cent there yet but we are getting there,” Archibald pointed out.
Some of the members would do cutting, while others would either sew, make the floral arrangements and do the packaging, while the shut-ins would contribute with the knitting from their homes.
Due to the pandemic members are facing an even more difficult time, financially and otherwise. Archibald was thankful though, that individuals as well as organisations, including the Humanitarian Mission Guyana Inc., have reached out to them with food hampers.
He is confident that after COVID-19 and the elections fiasco “we would move forward smoothly.”
He added: “We shouldn’t let politicians divide us. At the end of it, all of us have to live as one… And they inherit more than me and you.”
Referring to the present government, Archibald said: “When you want to meet a minister, you go through a lot of stress. But you have to fight to get through for the people with disabilities. We are getting tired and frustrated.”
He and the members are eagerly awaiting the commissioning of the building so they can continue to enhance their talents and to become more economically viable.
