Regional Chairman of Region One Brentnol Ashley has announced the region’s plans to have the Mabaruma Amerindian Hostel relocated for better accessibility to land and water as well as electricity.
Earlier this month, a letter was written to the editor by Craig Sylvester, who highlighted poor conditions at the Amerindian Hostel, with families living in unsafe and unsanitary conditions.
“I was reminded of the movie Apocalypto where you were forced to watch the insane savagery and violence on-screen, unable to do anything. What I saw and what has apparently been transpiring at the Mabaruma Amerindian Hostel and to people of Amerindian descent amounts to economic debauchery of the worst kind and it is something the current administration needs to immediately address. Families, water-babies, sleep on beds spread on the concrete a mere few feet from the semi-swamp the Regional Administration has maintained in the compound of the Amerindian Hostel.
On the eastern/southern end of the swamp are a number of structures put up by persons desperate for long-term accommodation, who have not been provided for by the administration. The main access to the hostel is via an approximate 150-200-metre walkway which was rehabilitated across various sections up to the entrance of what is the duck pond of the compound of the Amerindian Hostel. The remainder of the walkway… mirrors the deliberate, wilful neglect of the Regional Administration, is unlit at night and in a state of utter disrepair to the point of endangering unwary persons, with one section broken for close to 15 feet, forcing users to step down and walk on precariously placed boards on the lower frame of the walkway. I was fortunate that this was dry season,” Sylvester described in his letter. Stabroek News made contact with Ashley, who related that the hostel, “…has been housing the Venezuelan migrants that would have left that country because of economic hardship that the country is seeing. So, over the last couple of years there has been no usage by our local people and more predominantly it’s used by the Spaniards, not even the Waraus are coming.”
When asked where the locals, who venture out from their villages to seek medical attention, pension distribution, and other services, are housed, he said that, as of late, in most cases there is no need for them to be housed.
“Well, Amerindians, basically, many of them, or all the villages, I must say, have been provided through the government with different modes of transportation that can allow them to get back to their communities whenever they come out for whatever services whether health services or their social services such as old age pension and so forth. They have greater accessibility than probably they would have had 10 years ago as relates to transportation in and out of their respective villages. Because there’s a number of village boats and engines that were purchased. There are village buses, etc. Some riverain communities are now even being connected by road network, so it makes it easier to access from where they are,” he explained.
With regard to pregnant mothers who would need to be away for a longer time, Ashley said that most times they are housed at the hospital until they are ready to go home. He also disclosed that construction of a maternal waiting home was currently underway and will be completed by June of this year.
In his letter to the editor, Sylvester had offered a suggestion to remedy the hostel situation: “The solution for the condition of the hostel is simple; utilise the space provided by the swamp to build additional accommodation and accompanying sanitary facilities”.
In this regard, Ashley noted that the region has been working with such organisations as the UNHCR and IMO, to look into avenues of rehabilitating the hostel. He added that some level of work has already been done on the facility.
“I know the Town Council would have also placed some money towards dealing with the catwalk which is a very long catwalk from the Kumaka area into where the Amerindian hostel is. However, the region has plans and we are seriously working on that plan to have that facility relocated to have greater accessibility to land and water opportunities so that people can be able to use it, and also electricity and potable water can be able to be provided easily. Not that we don’t have potable water access to it. They do but it’s to have that done in a better way,” he explained.
Further, Ashley explained that the current hostel is flood-prone due to its location being close to the Aruka River.
“We have since reached out to central government and we are preparing, again, the estimates to relocate. The problem we face with that is the vicinity of where this land currently is. The land outside of that belongs to the Kumaka Estate, which is run by the Broomes family. And so, we are looking right now to work with them or any other area that might seem to be conducive for such a facility,” he said.
Ashley also addressed the housing situation with the migrant Waraus in the area. According to him, there is a settlement that was created where they are housed. On this settlement, he said, the Amerindian migrants are able to farm and, “there’s infrastructure in place for them to be comfortable as well”. (Abigail Headley)
