Everyone hopes for a better life, and it was for that reason that 46-year-old Clarene France ran away four years ago from her abusive partner at Mabaruma, North West District.
In January this year she moved to the Parika Sea Dam at a house her eldest son, 30, was renting. She has found peace, even though the living condition in the area is challenging.
There is no electricity and potable water, the road is almost impassable and there is flooding during the spring tide.
But Clarene has no intentions of moving and has since found a new partner who takes good care of her, along with two of her three daughters and a two-year-old grandson and three-month-old granddaughter.
She had actually moved out of the abusive home four years ago and was living in Mabaruma with her mother.
One year later she left Mabaruma and “tried to earn some money to send my youngest daughter (now 11 years) to school.”
She met a “male friend from the East Coast and we started a business to buy and sell turmeric and ginger.” She lived with him for about two years but ended the relationship after finding out that he was “smoking cocaine. He never used to hit me or anything but after I heard that I asked him and he doubted me. But I saw him for myself and I left right away because I don’t know what he would do to me later.”
Abuse
Recalling her abusive relationship, she said, ““Life was not so bad financially because me and he (first partner) operated a grocery shop and a bar.” She lived with him for over 20 years.
In the beginning, he never beat her but would abuse her emotionally.
“It was only after we start getting children and he felt that I wouldn’t run from him, that he start beating me,” the woman said.
The abuse “got worse and he would go out and waste money on alcohol. When I try to talk to him he would beat me more.”
For years I bear a lot because of my three daughters. After her two older daughters got married and moved out of the home, she mustered the courage to escape with her youngest daughter.
She was heartbroken when she learnt that one of her daughters’ partner was also a cocaine addict. He was physically abusing her from their Essequibo Coast home even though she was pregnant.
“He used to punish her and beat her and he even pressed a knife on her neck. When she visited and told us everything, we stopped her from going back. We promised to take care of her and the baby,” Clarene said.
Her daughter delivered a healthy baby girl through C-section. She feels at peace now but they are still hoping she would have a better life.
“I tell her that one day she would see someone good and move on with her life… He (abusive partner) came and begged her to go back but she refused…”
They all live in a two bedroom wooden house, which has a living room, kitchen and a bathroom. The toilet is located in the yard.
Clarene is praying that soon the area would see improvements.
Clarene’s current partner who works as a boat captain moved in with them as well and is helping to take care of the expenses. He is a welder and boat captain by profession but he does not get regular work
“Sometimes he would not get work for one or two weeks, then he would get a three-week or a one-month hold on. And when that work finish he has to wait on work again.”
The money “is not enough to save but we would try to buy enough grocery to last for the time that he would not be working.”
She was not sure if they would be celebrating Christmas this year because “everything is so expensive.”
The house they are renting is on sale for $300,000 but they are unable to raise the money to buy it. They just ensure that the $15,000 rent per month is paid.
Her son, Delon France, 23, an excavator operator in Puruni backdam was visiting for a few days. He is not able to work right now because “the water (in Puruni) got high. He had also done work for the regional office in North West for a few months.
He has to “look after some documents in Puruni”and return to look for a job. His father trained him to be an operator.
Clarene and her children seem to have a close knit relationship and she is sorry that they had to grow up witnessing the abuse she suffered.
She advised other women in similar situations to get out of toxic relationship as fast as possible and not to wait as long as she did.
