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Baramita’s suicide rate almost 7 times national average
TAAMOG President, Peter Persaud
From 2005 to date, the village of Baramita in Region One, has experienced 78 deaths by hanging, a stark contrast from the poison-related suicides that make up the majority of cases in Guyana.
This is according to Peter Persaud, current President of The Amerindian Action Movement of Guyana.
Persaud says that all suicides have been committed by genealogically Carib Indigenous people, who make up a majority of the population. With an average of six suicides per year, in a population of about 3,000 residents, Baramita’s suicide rate is 6.7 times the national estimate and 19 times the global average, considering the most recent rates tabulated by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Baramita suffers from a range of social ills that make it increasingly difficult to pinpoint the major systems that contribute to the high rates of suicide deaths and suicidal ideation.
One of the major issues affecting Baramita is alcoholism and the illegal sale of alcohol to its residents. It is plagued by Sexual and Domestic Abuse, including incest and abuse of minors. Persaud said that just recently, a 15-year-old Port Kaituma Secondary School student who lives in Baramita was impregnated by a police officer that was later transferred to Kamarang, Upper Mazaruni.
The child was forced to drop out of school. However, nothing is being done to have the police officer arrested and charged. This speaks to another pressing issue of a lack of justice in the village for persons who commit crimes.
Additionally, though farming and mining make up the bulk of employment, there is widespread unemployment of adults as well as a shortage of teachers, resulting in an insufficiently educated local population.
Just Saturday, a woman attempted to take her own life for no apparent reason. According to Persaud, the woman claimed to have a sudden feeling to commit suicide wash over her.
A segment of the Baramita community
Some residents of Baramita seem to believe that the overarching problem affecting the village is a great evil, manifesting itself by supernaturally overwhelming persons and giving them the will to take their own lives.
Peter Persaud believes that, akin to current efforts needing improvement, the village of Baramita needs spiritual warfare to be conducted by people of faith, to combat the evil which plagues the village.
Baramita has gotten national attention before. Martin Chung, Special Assistant to the Vice President on Projects and Community Development, from the Ministry of Indigenous People’s Affairs, related to Kaieteur News that the government of Guyana is very concerned about the issues that Baramita is suffering from.
This concern had, years ago, led to the formation of an Inter-Ministerial Task Force to combat the social ills affecting the village. This task force developed an approach to improving the lives of the people of Baramita which involved multiple interventions to improve education, agriculture, mining, employment, welfare and health; an approach that all ministries, as well as other organizations, have lent efforts to.
According to President of TAAMOG, there is much more work to be done, as he believes that the work of this task force has not been yielding results.
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