A guide for Sophia’s kids and advocate for rights and justice

Feb 24, 2013 News

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Doris Mc Lennon is a ‘Special Person’

“The children would come here from nine in the morning and would leave sometimes till after dark. When we finish tutoring them and listening to their issues, they would remain in my yard and play games like “dog and the bone and so on. It is a pleasure to have them around.”

By Rehana Ashley Ahamad
In a world today, where most parents are forced to take up jobs outside of the home with hardly any time to steer their children onto the so-called ‘right path’, there are women like Mrs. Doris Anetha Shelto-Mc Lennon who choose to adopt kids from challenging surroundings and guide them accordingly.
Unfortunately, there aren’t many like her around; she is a special person. For over eight years now, the children of Sophia and its environs have had another place to call home, and another woman to call mother. They fondly call her ‘Aunty Doris’. The doors to Mrs. Mc Lennon’s home are always open to the children in need of a plate of food, a place to lay their heads, a little money in their pockets or simply just someone to share their problems with. Mrs. Mc Lennon is always there for them.
She was one of 13 children, born to Yvonne and Vernon Shelto. She grew up in Belfield Village, Victoria, on the East Coast of Demerara.
Mrs. Mc Lennon recalls being raised in a very spiritual home.
“We were taught how to appreciate God from an early age. Even our home was situated like a church- with the benches and so on.”
As a little girl, Anetha, as she was most often referred to, attended the Victoria Roman Catholic School. When she was around age 10, her entire family took ill with a severe case of food poisoning. This resulted in the death of her 12-year-old sister at the time. The incident also caught the attention of the then President Linden Forbes Burnham, who subsequently visited the family and offered to assist in setting up accommodation and jobs for them in the Matthews Ridge area. The Shelto family took up the offer and moved almost immediately after.
Her parents soon gained employment and young Anetha was enrolled at the Matthews Ridge Primary School.
Recalling her days there, she said that she had always been an athletic youngster, very eager to participate in sports, especially leg races. The now 52-year-old woman said that as a child, she was always eager to learn.
“When I was little, I always wanted to learn more. I always felt the need to know more, and to be more than what I was.”
After sitting her examination, the one now known as the National Grade Six Assessment, Anetha was awarded a place at the Bygeval Secondary School. In wanting to pursue a better education, she was ready to move back to her Victoria home in an effort to obtain a secondary education. Her parents agreed, and so they packed their bags to accompany her back to the city.
But their trip was not all smooth sailing. Anetha was stranded in the vast expanse of water for seven long days and nights on a small army boat with her parents and a few other civilian passengers.
Sure when she looks back at it now she would laugh, but at that time, Anetha was a terrified child who did not know whether she would’ve lived to see another day. She recalled them having to “pinch” everything they had on the boat, especially their water supply. All they had to eat was sweet potato, a ground provision that Anetha soon became fed up of.
“After that incident I didn’t even want see back sweet potato. It was a long time after that I finally decided to eat it again.”
In recalling how they managed to get home, Anetha explained that “a man, I think he was a civilian passenger of the boat, too, took a radio and he stand up at the front of the boat and whichever side the radio pick up signal at, he demanded that the captain take we there.”
Although it was that frightening, Anetha believes that the incident somehow made her a better person; a stronger believer in God.
“God was with us for that week. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have been here.”
Nonetheless, she and her family survived the ordeal, arriving at her grandmother’s house safely. After spending a day there to ensure that she was all settled and ready for school, Anetha’s parents went back to Matthews Ridge.
She remained with her grandmother throughout the five years of high school.
She described life during that period as being quite rewarding. Not only was she able to equip herself with a sound secondary education, but she gained an insight into who she truly was.

Doris Anetha Shelto was not the kind of girl who was interested in dressing up in the latest trends, and painting her face…she wanted to help people. She aimed at making a difference.
After completing high school, she moved back to Matthews Ridge. There she started her first children’s group. It was more of Sunday school classes where Anetha taught the area’s children about the importance of God.
Apart from doing this, at around age 18, she started gathering food and clothing supplies for the less fortunate living further in the “jungle”.
Anetha was also called upon to teach students of the Matthews Ridge Primary School when there was a significant shortage of teachers.
She taught the four basic subjects for a few months, after which she met a young miner, Godfrey Mc Lennon, with whom she fell in love and later moved with to Queenstown, Essequibo. At age 20, she became Mrs. Doris Anetha Shelto-Mc Lennon.
Although her husband hailed from Essequibo, he never really liked it there, so soon after, the newly wedded couple moved back to Mathews Ridge where Mrs. Mc Lennon continued gathering items for the less fortunate, with the financial assistance of her husband.
She also continued with her Sunday school activities, which soon grew into a much more diverse group. Mrs. Mc Lennon went from teaching the children solely about God, to talking to them about social issues.
By that time, her family had moved back to coastal Guyana. So when she became pregnant soon after, she scrapped the group and moved back to Victoria village to be near to her family. After giving birth to her first child, she was also joined by her husband who insisted that they settle in ‘B’ Field, Sophia.
A simple house which soon evolved into a cozy home; hers was a perfect family. She was happy with her life – her husband and five sons. There were many things going on in her life. She had to also take care of her parents, which she did to the best of her ability. This did not distract her from doing what she felt was her duty – to help others.
Mrs. Mc Lennon started another group in Sophia. It was a community that she said she “easily connected with” – an impoverished area where often children are left at home alone as their parents seek employment.
“These children, they need some guidance. Some of them used to be cussing and fighting on the streets for no reason. Some of them were real bullies,” Mrs. Mc Lennon explained.
Ever since, for over eight years now, she has been guiding the children of Sophia and its surrounding areas, and said that she has “seen much change in the children and the community as a whole”. Not only children, but their parents would also seek her advice on various issues in their homes.

“When we realise that something is wrong with a child, we contact the parents, and they would come in and talk to me. If it is something that I cannot handle, I would put them on to Ms. Ann Greene (Director of Child Care Services in Guyana).”
Mrs. Mc Lennon is now a second mother to close to 100 children who attends her Saturday classes, which are conducted in a classroom in the bottom flat of her home.
“The children would come here from nine in the morning and would leave sometimes till after dark. When we finish tutoring them and listening to their issues, they would remain in my yard and play games like “dog and the bone and so on. It is a pleasure to have them around,” Mrs. Mc Lennon said.
She has also been a helping hand and a mentor to the parents of Sophia. She attends the children’s school meetings and graduations, and particularly loves the fact that the children keep her actively involved in their lives.
“Every Saturday we do different things. We have a review of the work the children did in school during the week. We help the weaker understand their subjects. We say prayers and discuss issues affecting the children at school. We have lunch, we do art… we practically do it all,” a smiling Mrs. Mc Lennon said.
To carry out her work, she receives support from a few other persons such as Ms. Mariel Blair, Mr. Desmond Burch- Smith, Dorcas John, as well as her husband, Godfrey Mc Lennon.
Many would readily agree that Mrs. Mc Lennon’s presence in their community and the work that she does has been beneficial.
“Ever since Aunty Doris come here, things change. Dem children don’t just cuss up fuh no reason and bully other children and so. Things really change. The children look like they doing better in school. Plus more of them does come out to church too,” said one resident named Pamela.
Mrs. Mc Lennon is also the founder of the ‘Mothers Action Group on Social Issues’, an entity that became more active after she lost one of her sons, Elron Peter McLennon, in the fatal Homestretch Avenue accident in July 2011.
The group has been a mouthpiece and support mechanism for women who have suffered injustices being done to themselves or family.
Mrs. Mc Lennon also formally re-launched her area group as the ‘Sophia Sparkle Youth Group’.

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