Mothers’ Union Diocesan President Sheran Harper is our “Special Person’

Mar 15, 2009 News

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A life dedicated to volunteering…

…“It’s a fulfilling feeling, knowing that I can use the gifts and talents that God has given me to help others… to make meaningful contributions not only to their families but to society.”

By Tusika Martin

She always has a smile on her face whenever I see her, even while doing the most tedious tasks or under great stress in organising events, which surely makes Sheran Harper, most appropriately known as ‘Sister Sheran’, one of the most pleasant women I have ever met.
Her devotion to God and her great passion in helping the needy and less fortunate is quite inspiring.
Sister Sheran is the Diocesan President of the Mother’s Union of Guyana, and is the wife of former Guyana and West Indies cricketer and now coach, Roger Harper.
The mother of two was born in England to Guyanese parents, who met while studying in that country. Subsequent to their studies they returned to Guyana with their first of three children.
As I sat in Sheran’s home talking to her about her life, both personal and public, it suddenly occurred to me that it is very infrequent that one encounters a person who spends most of their time doing voluntary work and not consumed by making a profit in today’s economically driven world.
Looking at her smiling as she spoke, I hoped that she could not have read my thoughts, since I was thinking that maybe she really does not need to make a profit out of anything, since she is married to a very famous and successful sportsman.

Sister Sheran has two sons, Richard and Reginald, both of whom are currently at University.
The older sibling, Richard, is studying in England, while Reginald is currently pursuing a career in law at the University of Guyana.
But how did Sheran become involved in voluntary work?
Getting comfortable in a sofa and reminiscing on her life, Sister Sheran began laughing as she remembered how she became involved in the Mothers’ Union.
“Tusika, you would not believe, but I was very young and had just gotten married, and a friend invited me to join the organisation, and I thought to myself I will just go to one meeting and then get away, because at the time I thought the union was just for old women,” she said as she laughed heartily.
Giving a synopsis of her life prior to getting married, Sheran said that upon returning to Guyana with her parents, as a child she lived in Subryanville, and subsequently at New Providence, East Bank Demerara.
She attended St. Joseph’s High school and then migrated to England where she attended college.
Three years later tragedy hit her family with the death of her father, and she returned to Guyana.
She later gained a Commonwealth scholarship to study physiotherapy at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica.
Young and vibran, with great interest in swimming and cookery, Sheran grabbed the opportunity and headed to the “land of wood and water” where she studied for three years.
Little did she know that her career choice at that young age would have led to her having a comfortable life today.
Returning as a physiotherapist, she was required to serve a five-year stint with the Ministry of Health, having been given a scholarship by the Government.
As such she was sent to work at the Sports Clinic, which was at the time located along Homestretch Avenue.
As she sat there she started to blush, and I realised that she was about to tell me how she met her husband.
“I met my husband at that clinic. He was one of my patients,” she said as she blushed.
While serving her five-year stint with the Government, she was solely responsible for the opening of the physiotherapy department at the West Demerara Regional Hospital.
Having opened that department, she began operating physiotherapy clinics along the West Coast Demerara and East Bank Essequibo.
During that period also she got married to the love of her life.
The union produced two sons, and Sheran decided to stay at home to take care of them.
“I stopped working because I got my two sons in a short space of time.”
Having gotten married, Sister Sheran became a member of the St. Sidwell’s Anglican Church, Vlissengen Road, having attended the St. George’s Cathedral during her childhood days.
After attending her first Mothers’ Union meeting with a plan not to return, Sheran’s escape plan did not work, as the women of the organisation realised that she had a special talent in creativity and loved cooking.
“Those ladies knew of my talents, and so they would come to my house, and if they had any Mother’s Union activities going on, they would arrive with posters and markers for me to do things for them, and create things to help them win these Mother’s Union competitions.”

At the time, she said, it occurred to her that she could not have gotten rid of the women in the union, and in defeat decided to ‘help them out’.
She laughed as she remembered the encounter.
“I was the youngest member so I was like this little child with all these ‘grannies’,” she said, as she quickly corrected herself by saying ‘older women’.
It was after being around the members of the union that she realised that those women were very mature, and were in a subtle way nurturing her to be a good wife and mother.
“I was just a little child running around with them… at least that is how it felt at first.”
Having parents that were very involved in church, it was easy for Sheran to volunteer her time to the church and doing God’s work.
It has been 25 years since she joined the St. Sidwell’s congregation and 22 years since she is a member of the Mothers’ Union, and she has not regretted her decision.
Sheran started as an ordinary member in helping to organise small activities and, before she knew it, she was a regional member taking on greater responsibilities.
She was then appointed the first Public Relations Officer for Diocesan Mothers’ Union within the Anglican Church, and then became Assistant Secretary/Ttreasurer and later Vice President.
Since 2006 she has been the Diocesan President for the Union.
“When I stopped working I was looking after the children and I had these skills, and when I realised that I can use them and actually enjoy doing voluntary work, that is what kept me going… it was a good feeling to use my professional skills to assist people in need.’
In the early days, the Union had one Day-Care centre; today there are two centres which cater to the needs of children of low-income and single-parent households.
Although the responsibilities are many, Sheran said that she enjoys every bit of the time she spends helping society.
The Union also has a library and skills-training centre at Alness, Corentyne.
She was vital in assisting the women of the union there to start a nutrition-enhancement programme as well as a pre-school.
These women are involved in a feeding programme, both for the elderly and school children countrywide.
‘We have literacy development officers who run literacy programmes… we have a hospital ministry, where members visit sick persons in the hospital and minister to them.”
The prison ministry, she added, which is one of the newer additions to the organisation, allows members to visit mothers in prison, taking hampers for them and assisting them getting their life back together.
Another new addition to the Union is a mobile food unit.
“There is also a parenting programme… over the past five years we have been running parenting groups throughout the length and breadth of Guyana, both on the coastland and hinterland… to date we have trained 72 parenting group facilitators, of which 65 are active.”
In this programme, Sheran along with other members help parents enhance their parenting skills.
“Over the past three years we have been encouraging these parenting groups to start little income-generating activities that would help the parents, especially single mothers, find a source of income.”
She was critical in the starting of a tilapia fish-pond project in the Potaro for single mothers and low-income homes.
“We also have a chicken-rearing project in the Mazaruni, which is about 85 percent completed. And we have cassava project in the Rupununi, and the women in the Union there are involved in a sewing project, where they sew clothing for children.”
The various projects by the Union require a lot of time and, according to Sheran, it is just like a full-time job for her.
“At the end of the day it is very rewarding or else I would not have done it as a full-time job… it’s a fulfilling feeling, knowing that I can use the gifts and talents that God has given me to help others and to equip them to make meaningful contributions, not only to their families, but to society as a whole.”
She said the voluntary work complements her family life very well.
Sheran is currently the Parent Trainer and Ambassador for Parenting Worldwide.
She also represented the worldwide Mothers’ Union at the United Nations Commission on the Status on Women meeting in 2007 in New York.
She was also part of the Mothers’ Union West Indies delegation to a worldwide Regional meeting in Australia in 2008, and presented a paper on Mothers’ Union Social Policy work.
As I sat in her home, I thought to myself that the pleasant feeling I experienced while chatting with her was reflected in the atmosphere in the house.
Leaving her home I felt incomplete, thinking to myself that maybe I can make a better contribution to society, but essentially volunteering more to helping the needy.
Having returned to the office following the interview, I told my Editor-in-Chief, Adam Harris, that I had just done one of the most memorable interviews in my life as a journalist.
“Sometimes in life you meet people that leave an impression on you,” he said to me, before rushing me off to complete the day’s work.

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