Determined to eliminate illiteracy, book by book: Rupert Hopkinson is a ‘Special Person’

Nov 14, 2010 News

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“I take pride in the fact that I have been able to gradually build the Georgetown Reading and Research Centre (GRRC), and I am determined to eliminate illiteracy in Guyana, book by book.”

By Jenelle Carter

Coming from a humble background, and of benevolent parents who shared their home with more than 50 strangers, one can say it would be in his genetic make-up to be generous. And so it truly is with this week’s ‘Special Person’.
Rupert Hopkinson, the Director and founder of the Georgetown Reading and Research Centre (GRRC), was born in Dartmouth, a farming village on the Essequibo Coast. The second of 11 children, Hopkinson reflected that he grew up in quite challenging circumstances, which taught him to appreciate the finer things in life, and ultimately, to make something of his life.
“We were poor but happy…we never went hungry, given the fact that farming was vital in our community and we enjoyed everything else that regular country children enjoyed and appreciated.”
Despite his modest upbringing, Hopkinson said he had big dreams to get out of poverty and he was cognizant that the only way out was a sound education. His schooling started at Dartmouth Primary, and soon enough he and his other siblings were taught how to shoulder responsibilities. Being raised in a farming community, in itself, was the perfect opportunity for Hopkinson and his siblings to start learning to appreciate hard work and its fruits.
But more about his childhood and growing up, later.
Passion For Books
It was on his return to Guyana, in 1992 (having qualified himself at the tertiary level at Tuskegee University in Alabama, USA), that Hopkinson served as an Assistant Human Resource Manager for the Guyana Sugar Corporation, the country’s largest employer.
“Training was part of my responsibility and it was during this period that I saw firsthand how a shortage of books affected education. I had a lifelong passion for books and I could no longer ignore this glaring deficiency.”
Having recognised the need to address what he said was falling educational standards in Guyana, his dream was finally made into a reality. In 1997, the Georgetown Reading and Research Centre, a research and information facility was formed. This Centre makes available books in various subject areas, from pre-school to university level.
“For our work over the years the Centre received an award in 2007 from the Rotary Club of Georgetown, for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Education and Professional Development of Guyanese’.”
Through the Centre, Hopkinson says he continues to see the importance of education to economic development and ultimately the well-being of a nation.
“I recognised too that the concept of the Centre can be replicated and be useful in other communities.”
With the aim to track the relationship between reading and a school’s success, the centre collaborated with the Ministry of Education, holding book exhibitions and sales at about 120 schools in various parts of the country. As the Centre’s director, Hopkinson has managed to use his good office to advocate literacy and the need for reading, particularly among children.

As part of giving back to Guyanese, in January 2006, the Centre established a one-year experimental library programme, ‘READY’, for children below 11 years. (READY is an acronym for Read Early And Develop Yourself). The READY programme promoted reading, through free rental of books to children. During that period, Hopkinson was president of the Central Demerara Lions Club for the fiscal year 2006-2007 and he used the opportunity to focus on promoting literacy among children in the Club’s area of service.
Hopkinson emphasises that of all his achievements in life, the most gratifying has been the establishment of GRRC.
“I take pride in the fact that I have been able to gradually build the GRRC, and I am determined to eliminate illiteracy in Guyana, book by book. When you contribute to educating people it makes you better off, if you’re short sighted you see it as work. Think about what will happen if we have qualified people staying and living in Guyana you’ll get a better country!”
“Education, as we all know, can do a lot for people and more so for the development of a society… If you read you can speak out against things that are not going right, if you don’t learn and understand you can’t make the place you live in better.”
Hopkinson’s belief in education and leadership as instruments for growth and development of communities is profound, hence his contribution to developing literacy locally. His journey in community and public service began in 1970. While still in school at the Anna Regina Secondary, his peers, convinced of his interest in community work and leadership, elected him to serve as chairman of a youth group in their community. It was during this period that his interest in such service grew even more and soon enough he was elevated to the office of Assistant National Secretary, helping to oversee similar youth groups around the country.
Not long after, in 1972, Hopkinson secured his first job – a Cooperatives Organiser, with Guyana Ministry of Cooperatives and National Development. His job entailed working in communities to get people to come together for some common purpose. After some four years of in that field, his next job would be what he described as a logical spin-off.
In 1977, he became an officer with the Ministry of Information – Development Support Communication, filing news stories and reporting on developments in communities in his area of operation. This, Hopkinson said, instilled in him a life-long interest to see communities and their residents grow and prosper.
IMPORTANT LESSONS
However, in all this, there was still a longing to attend a University which was fashioned by his role model, Booker T. Washington. Hopkinson recounted that in his teenage years, he would sit and listen to stories of how Booker T. Washington formed the University from a background of slavery. Hopkinson said the stories he heard from an elder relative who attended the university further fueled his longing to attend the institution.
In 1982, this interest led Hopkinson, in the company of his wife, to travel to the United States to pursue his dream. With the money he managed to save up from his years of working back home, Hopkinson enrolled at Tuskegee University, by then a renowned institution that was fashioned mainly by Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver, themselves great community developers.

During his college years, Hopkinson observed how decisions, whether made at the community, state or national level, could impact on development. This fueled his interest and an involvement in public policy, particularly leadership in public organisations.
“In later years, teaching undergraduate courses in economics and business management at Tuskegee and several academic institutions in Guyana greatly influenced me to follow developments worldwide, and those factors that lead to the state of various economies and their people. It was also while at Tuskegee that I learnt some of life’s important lessons that not only changed my life but, I believe, that of others, even to this day.”
While at the University, Hopkinson said he came across two of the most powerful books he has ever read, and which had a great impact on this mindset.
“Once you go to Tuskegee you would have read the book “Up from Slavery” and that tells the story of the son of a slave who figured a way to go to school. Eventually he utilised what we call a fowl pen to form that university… I got my passion, as I said before, from Booker T Washington.”
“The University of Success”, Hopkinson said, is the other book that lies between him lying down and dying.
“This book gives me my resilience; it makes me feel that I can move mountains. Someone thought that was what would happen if they got contributions from twelve of the most inspirational speakers, and so from those speakers this book was developed”.
In all his challenges and successes while studying at Tuskegee, Hopkinson said he has learnt, “If you wait until circumstances are right you’ll get nothing done”. That thought, he said, is something he would share with anyone who comes to him for advice in their lowest of moments.
CHILDHOOD
In a brief recollection of his childhood days, Hopkinson stressed that seeing the way his parents lived provided him with some of the most valuable teachings in life. His father was the village overseer while his mother spent all her time at home tending to him, his siblings and the others who were accepted into the family.
He recalled that while growing up he shared his home, and in some instances his bed, with close to fifty persons who were not related to them but who were accommodated for one reason or the other by his parents. But nonetheless, he said that despite having such a large family, he and his siblings were closely knitted as well as those who joined their family. Of all the persons who Hopkinson said he grew up with in his home, the one that stayed in his head was a 60-year-old woman called “Sukdia”.
This individual stuck in his mind for the simple reason that she was of East Indian descent but shared everything in their home like the others.
Hopkinson said he “managed to survive Primary school and then it was on to Anna Regina Secondary. Soon after the yearning to become independent and to give back to his community became even stronger. The rest, as they say, is history.

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