Latest update January 18th, 2025 7:00 AM
Region Ten group to the rescue for the not so fortunate
Schools all across Guyana reopened yesterday for the new academic school year.
Lynette Benn (in African attire) and Coretta Braithwaite with the happy children.
In Linden, some parents were still doing last-minute shopping as late as Sunday night.
Those were the fortunate ones – for the not so fortunate, persons and organizations came to the rescue, in just the nick of time.
One such organization is the Region Ten Cultural Organization, which presented eighteen school children with backpacks and other school supplies late Sunday evening at the Bayrock Community Centre ground.
The children, who were accompanied by their parents, expressed gratitude to their benefactors. Their equally grateful parents also expressed their appreciation to the group.
“I’m really happy for this, it is the first year that my child is benefitting, and I’m certainly looking forward to this next year, because it is not easy acquiring school supplies for three and four children at a time; so any kind of help is always welcome,” one mother exclaimed.
Another parent, Gerald George, though thankful to the group, stressed that more could be done for the children, by other organizations. Other parents expressed similar sentiments.
Apart from school supplies, the children were also treated to tasty delicacies provided by the group.
Lynette Benn, Chairperson of the Region Ten Cultural Organization and representative of the People of African Descent Committee, said that the money that was used in the back to school drive had been given to the organization for emancipation celebrations.
“The money we received was $135,000 which we think was grossly inappropriate, and there wasn’t much that we could do with it in terms of celebrating our rich culture, so we decided that we would use the funds to equip the more needy children in the community with school supplies.”
Benn noted that compared to past years where at least fifty children would have benefitted from the drive, this year the funds could only cater for eighteen children. Benn noted that her organization has been giving back to the community for over ten years.
Coretta Braithwaite, a member of the organization said that in as much as she was pleased to help the children, she was disappointed with the poor support to the organization, even at the Regional level.
But she also expressed some optimism.
“We are continuing the B’s initiative started by our president, we are giving books and bags, and Im confident that we’ll have a future President right from this group!”
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