An Orphan’s Christmas wish

Dec 25, 2009 News

By Jamal Scott

Like the average 10-year-old boy Noel (not his real name) attends school regularly and is quite often involved in the many naughty deeds boys so often find themselves. He likes sports and tree climbing but is most times a quiet lad who becomes introverted in an instant.

But as the saying goes, “nobody knows the troubles he has seen”. Noel’s most promising life slammed into a speed hump leaving him with the world on his shoulders this Christmas and for all other Christmases to come.

The youngest of four children, he has already been abused mentally and emotionally and has slept on the streets in his quest to survive.

Yet he remains a brave, assertive lad as he said, “My mother died earlier this year” and he has not seen his other siblings since he was brought to the capital city from Linden. Most heart-rending is that for the first time in his life, despite the many tribulations he has faced, Noel will not be spending Christmas with his mother and blood relatives.

His is a story that is in sharp contrast to those of many children who are spending Christmas day in the warm company of families and friends, enjoying the goodies and toys.

But while many children are exposed to the elements and predators of the human kind, he is one of the many Guyana street children who now enjoy the comfort of a bed and meals and attention at the Drop-in Center on Hadfield, Street.

His major wish is to have a Nintendo game but more importantly “a caring family to belong to.”

Noel is one of 54 youths at the Drop-in Centre who shares a common dream that seems unlikely but possible.

He has been at the centre since his mom died earlier this year void of visits from relatives. He attends a city Primary School but when his friends leave for home, he heads to the one place he and 53 other youths call home.

The lad’s life story includes a father who left him along with his mother, two brothers and a sister in Linden, at their grandmother’s home.

As result of a fall out with his grandmother, he and his mother migrated to Georgetown, leaving the rest of his siblings behind. He remembers begging his mother to take him back to Linden where his family was, amidst tears as they slept many nights at his mother’s friends.

And when they could no longer be accommodated his mother cuddled him for safety as they resorted to life on the streets. To him, Stabroek Market is more than a place for shopping as, “we used to sleep there. Me mudda used to take sheets and spread on the cold floor and on stalls and she used to hug me up and sleep”.

But his longing was always to return to Linden despite his mother’s efforts at distracting him. “I cried a lot because I missed home and I remember a Christmas day we sleep by the market when my mother take me to a place close to the Brickdam Police Station for food.”

Thereafter, they frequented the location nightly to sleep and to enjoy a warm meal.

As brave as he is, Noel’s emotional scars are fresh. With watering eyes he recalled that his mother one day took him to the centre where he is presently housed and never returned. Several days later, he got news that she was hospitalized. In his little mind he said, “I did not think that she would die.” But after being taken back to the center, he got the devastating news that his mother was dead.

A few days later he attended the funeral and his tears did flow and he said his last goodbyes to his closest and lone friend-his mother. His world was destroyed but against all hopes he cried with the fervent hope that his mother would awaken from her slumber and all would be well. But that was not to be. “I wished she was still around, and every night I still get up and sit and cry because I miss her so much…I hope that she’s with God and that I will see her again someday.”

He still dreams about his mother and said, “She told me that everything is okay with her and that I will not see her again.” Oon such occasions he would wake up crying and run to the Center’s Administrator, Rebecca Pluck.

To him the centre is a home, and everyone there is very good to him. “They all look me after great here, especially Ms. Pluck. They don’t treat me bad or anything like that here”. He is happy that there are people with big hearts who still care enough to remember children like himself. Recently a group donated some toys to the center and he was one of the beneficiaries.

He says too that some people usually visit the centre every Tuesday night and spend time talking to them and playing games with them and sometimes even take them out to play on a nearby field during the day.

He and the other children go to church on Sundays before going to brother Troy’s house for Lunch.

His only memory of relatives in Georgetown is an aunt who visited him after his mother’s demise. But he has not seen her for some time and he wished she would just come along with his other family members and take him home. When asked about his Christmas wish, he said with watering eyes, “all I want for Christmas is a family to go home to, to spend the holidays with”.