Food for the Poor continues poverty alleviation mission

May 14, 2009 News

– offers tools to help with skills training

As part of its effort to fulfil its mandate to alleviate poverty throughout Guyana, Food For the Poor Guyana Inc. yesterday extended much needed assistance to a number of local organisations.

Mr Paul Chan-A-Sue (extreme right) makes a presentation to Mr Michael Khan in the presence of Mr Leon Davis and Michelle Branker

Among the recipients were the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), the Guyana Prison Service, and Little Red Village Community at Ondermeening, Essequibo Coast, and the Montrose Primary School.

Chief Executive Officer, Michael Khan, and representative of the Guyana Chest Clinic, Compton Giddings, were on hand yesterday to receive pharmaceuticals on behalf of the public hospital and the clinic respectively.

According to Khan the GPHC is the largest hospital in the country that attends to more than 200 people per day, a figure that is increasing daily.

He said that over the six years that he has been CEO at the hospital, Food for the Poor has been continually rendering assistance.

The CEO recounted that the entity has even helped to boost staff performance by offering hampers, which allow the hospital to host a breakfast and hand out a hamper to nurses every month.

“We have noticed that since we are giving out these hampers we have seen an increase in our staff at nights. Instead of five or 10 people coming, now it’s up to about 74…We cannot do this without Food for the Poor.”

Khan said that the quantum of support the hospital has received amounts to several million dollars, even as he pointed to the fact that every donation that is received means that the government will have to spend less in terms of medical supplies.

The support also helps to ensure that the hospital does not have a shortage of supplies as some medicines sometimes take a while to arrive as they come from overseas, Khan noted.

Recipients of the computers

Chairman of the Board, Paul Chan-A-Sue, also indicated that Food For the Poor would be willing to provide the Burns Unit of the Hospital with four bathtubs.

The non-governmental organisation has also been providing support to the Chest Clinic in the form of providing drugs and foodstuff to Tuberculosis patients. And according to Griffith several TB patients will be able to benefit from the items that were received yesterday when the clinic undertakes an outreach in the Mahaica Creek shortly.

A quantity of tools were also handed over to the Chief Officer of the Prison Service, Clifton Britton, who pointed out that the Prison Service has always been able to benefit from Food for the Poor.

And in its attempt to move away from mere distribution of items, Food For the Poor is now working towards empowering persons by equipping them with a skill, said Public Relations Officer, Michelle Branker.

“We believe that you cannot break the cycle of power by just sharing out hampers because after a while they become totally dependent on you…but if you harm them with a skill and give them a marketable trade they would be able to assist themselves and in turn other persons.”

Yesterday, too, computers were presented to representatives of the Little Red Village, a housing project that the entity recently completed and to a representative of the Montrose Primary School, East Coast Demerara.

According to Branker, the organisation has brought in excess of $8M in computer systems, which will be distributed to various entities this month.

Executive Director, Leon Davis, said that once donors are able to see that worthwhile distributions are being made, they would continue to support the endeavours of Food For the Poor.