Latest update February 24th, 2025 9:02 AM
Sep 08, 2009 News
The driving force behind the society from left: President, Arjune Boodhoo, Secretary David Sattaur and Treasurer Ramdehol Persaud.
If all goes well, the Enterprise Friendly Burial Society will soon be able to offer $100,000 for the burial of its members. This is dependent of the success of an upcoming fund-raising activity which should see the society increasing its financial status.
Presently, the society has been offering $91,000 and with about 40 deaths per year added to the exorbitant cost for burials, their commitment to the proper burial of members cannot be underestimated.
On Sunday, the Society presented $91,000 each to the relatives of two of its members who passed away recently.
President of the Enterprise Friendly Burial Society, Arjune Boodhoo, in an interview with this newspaper, gave a brief history of the organisation.
The society was formed in 1966 under the Chairmanship of Petam Singh and Secretary, Mangal Beharry, as a result of a death in the village of a member of a poor family.
“People had to go around and beg neighbours to collect fees.
Since that day a group of people formed this society so that when people die in the future there will always be a fund to have a proper burial,” Boodhoo explained.
In those days, he recalled, the burial society provided a sum of $20 to assist with funeral arrangements.
Certainly, the Enterprise Friendly Burial Society has come a long way.
But to sustain this initiative, the society charges a levy of $80 per member for every death, and with over 1200 members, along with fund-raising activities, the target figure of today is easily achievable.
In addition to helping to bury its members, the society is also involved in assisting the Enterprise Primary School with the acquisition of furniture.
“We used to give bursaries to school children but because we had a little problem with funds, we had to ease up, but we might soon restart that,” Boodhoo said.
And the residents have been very supportive of the work of the society.
David Sattaur is the entity’s Secretary and he informed that arrangements have been made with a popular funeral home on the East Coast of Demerara to supplement the cost of funeral arrangements of the deceased.
He pointed out that although the society caters for in excess of 40 burials per year, the new membership outnumbers this, lending to the sustainability of the society.
He said that although some members are well off, and could cater for their own dead, the society still has a duty to pay the stipulated burial fee.
“As soon as a member passes away we are there for them. Sometimes, for some people, even in the night they approach the secretary because they are poor people and they are in need of the money,” Bodhoo told this newspaper.
All that is required is for the relatives of the deceased to produce a death certificate.
Boodhoo disclosed that the Enterprise Friendly Burial Society has three other branches at Enmore, Strathspey and Cane Grove.
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