Dear Editor,
The Macedonia Joppa Volunteer Committee (MJVC) on the Corentyne welcomes the New Year after two harsh years of the COVID 19 pandemic that took the lives of almost 1,300 Guyanese, 72,000 hospitalizations and more than 70,000 recoveries. In mid-2022, the country had returned to some level of normalcy. However, it is without a doubt that the COVID 19 pandemic has ravaged the nation and overwhelmed the hospitals in Guyana, and like most other countries around the world, the government of the day had to find additional health care facilities for thousands of COVID 19 patients.
In addition, the country’s schools and universities were closed and the government had implemented a virtual learning teaching process so as not to deprive the students of their education. Not to mention that government had ordered all bars, restaurants and outdoor recreational facilities and even religious institutions and the courts closed. Only institutions deemed as emergency were allowed to operate. They include the police, military and hospitals as well as some government agencies. Simply put, the pandemic wreaked havoc on the country’s residents and its economy at the time when huge amount of oil deposits was discovered by ExxonMobil.
Indeed, the pandemic took its toll on people, especially children, many of whom did not fully understand what it was about and the danger it posed to their lives.
However, with the diminishing of the pandemic and decline in the number of infected persons in 2022, the government relaxed the strict rules it had implemented and today the situation seems normal in the country. Because children were home-bound and could not attend school and social gathering or even being outdoor to play with their friends for almost two years, we at the Macedonia Joppa Voluntary Committee, in an effort to revive the spirit of the children, celebrated the festive season with a lavish Christmas party for more than 200 at the Eversham Village Community Center on Saturday December 10, 2022. With smiles on their faces, children aged from three to 15 years enjoyed the evening with a variety of dishes, drinks and juices as they met and greeted friends and sang and danced to their favourite tunes.
The MJVC, which is a non-profit organization, also provided a Christmas dinner for more than 100 senior citizens on Sunday December 11, including hampers for all. And on Friday December 23, 2022, for the first time, the residents of the district, including the young and old, sang carols and witnessed the lightening of an eight-foot Christmas tree in front of the Eversham Community Center. The MJVC, which was founded by Dr. Asquith Rose and led by a team of dedicated men and women, did a marvelous job in 2022 to help the less fortunate. Funded by kind and generous private donors, the MJVC succeeded in realizing its motto of uplifting the people in the district.
During the past year, the MJVC provided hampers to almost all the residents in the district, wheel chairs to senior citizens, chickens to several residents, kites to children and sports equipment to the youths. In 2022, its volunteers worked tirelessly to help residents celebrate Mashramani, Easter, Independence and Emancipation. In the New Year, the MJVC plans to establish a race track, a recreational center with several sport facilities for cricket, volley ball, basketball, lawn tennis and track and field.
Sincerely,
Dr. Asquith Rose
