The heartrending story of a Mabaruma youth

May 02, 2021 News

---

Cut down in his quest to make his mother proud…

By Shervin Belgrave

Kaieteur News – At 19 years old, Avinash Fernandes had big dreams of joining the Guyana Defence Force (GDF). Although he was hoping to make his entry as a Cadet Officer, he had his heart set on becoming Chief of Staff one day. He was nevertheless willing to let the sky be the limit when it comes to his future endeavours. In so doing, this youth who hailed from Mabaruma, Region One (Barima-Waini), caressed ambitious ideas of becoming Prime Minister or better yet President.
His ambitious drive was fuelled by a childhood promise — to make his mother proud.
Unfortunately, while working to make this a reality his precious life was snuffed out by a killer who strangled him to death on Monday April 5, sometime after 21:30 hrs. at Arakaka, Region One.

His body, in a decomposed state, was found three days later at around 05:00 hrs. floating in the Arakaka River by a team of police officers and his “bossman,” a dredge owner, identified as Keith Alphonso. It is believed that his killer(s) might have dumped his body in the river after murdering him.
So far, detectives have arrested one person and are seeking the whereabouts of one of his workmates who was seen with a wound to his face around the time that Avinash went missing.

WHO HE WAS?
Describing Avinash as her “baby” and “eye-ball,” his mother, Zelena Fernandes, revealed during an interview that he did everything just to make her smile.
She said that he was the last of her nine children and the second of her two sons. He entered the world on February 8, 2002 and according to her, “I never use to let him out of my sight, I always kept him close.”
The woman recalled too, that there were occasions when persons would make her feel that she was being “too protective.” But she was motivated to be “too protective,” she said, because “I only got two sons, the rest are girls and I wanted to make sure that nothing happens to them especially my baby (Avinash).”
As she reflected on Avinash’s short life, she recalled that like many boys he had lots of friends. However, one of the things that she most admired about him was his determination to do well and achieve great things.
That attitude of “doing well,” she explained, was his mantra to make her proud.
From a tender age, she said, it would appear that Avinash would feel some amount of satisfaction from doing things to make her smile. He was always striving for major accomplishments, she recalled.
In fact, she added, it was just such a feat he was aiming for when he decided to delve into playing football. His efforts had seen him becoming an excellent footballer who represented Mabaruma from a very young age.
Zelena said she was thrilled when he was listed as his team’s captain when he was just 17 years old. She recalled vividly too the moment when he led Mabaruma to victory over their rival Hosororo in the last football match he played.
She noted that although he loved football and often dreamt of being “a Neymar” and representing the Golden Jaguars (the National football team) at the international level, becoming a cadet officer and Guyana’s future Head of State were more tempting options to him.
“I would laugh and then provoke him by saying ‘boy what are you saying, you are getting big, ah gon marry you off to a girl just now’,” Zelena shared.
It was during one of those moments of provoking him; she recalled that Avinash shared his future plans with her. “I remembered him saying, ‘Mommy me ain’t want no girl now. I want to go to Georgetown and sign-up for the Cadet Course at the GDF’,” recounted Zelena.
She recalled asking him, “Why you want to be a cadet officer so bad?’’
His response, she related, was “‘Mommy once you become a cadet officer you does get a lot of opportunities. I could become a Chief of Staff or get into politics and be a President or Prime Minister. Mommy, I will make you proud mommy. I will make you proud Mommy!’”

MILES FROM HOME
Wanting to fulfill his ambition, Avinash decided to leave his home in late November 2020, for the first time in his life, just to work in a gold mine located miles away.
His plan, Zelena said, was to work there for a few months to earn a significant amount of money. The money, she explained, was to assist him in relocating to Georgetown where he would sign-up for the cadet’s course at the GDF’s Camp Ayanganna base.
Zelena said, “I was at work when he and Shimroy (Avinash’s elder brother) came riding on their bicycles.” They had come, she said, to inform her that they had found work on a dredge and were travelling by boat to Port Kaituma and from there they would head to Arakaka in a vehicle.
“I was not pleased…it was the first time he was stepping out of my eyesight and I tried to convince him not to go. I said, ‘boy you don’t need to work stay’,” Zelena recounted.
He too, she said, became emotional and started to cry as he contemplated changing his mind for a bit but then looked over at his elder brother and said, ‘Mommy I am going with Shimroy, I will be fine.’
Those words, Zelena related, caused her to ‘’soften up’’ and she brushed her fears aside and hugged him good-bye. “I did not get a chance to see them off at the boat but when they arrived at their destination they called and said ‘Mommy we reach we ok’.”
For the next four months Zelena would speak “every two weeks” with her sons via phone. However, on April 6, she would receive a phone call that shattered her emotionally.
“The Tuesday (April 5) Shimroy call me, and he was crying, right there and then I started to tremble…I seh, ‘boy tell me what happen’,” she narrated.
Shimroy, she said, informed her that Avinash was missing and that his efforts at finding him were futile. Confused, the woman said that she in response said, “Shimroy you got to look for he, yuh can’t come home without he, yuh hear!”

DREADFUL NEWS
She would not receive a call from Shimroy again until around 11:00 hrs. on Thursday April, 8.
“He called me again crying, by this time I expected the worst,” Zelena said as she recalled Shimroy telling her “Mommy a find Avinash, a find ma brother, it look like them bruk up he hand.” After hearing those words, Zelena said that she already knew that he was dead.
“I just tell he boy, mek sure dem treat yuh brother (the remains) good and come out with he and see that he reach safe,” the grieving woman recalled.
Shimroy, during an earlier interview with this publication, had revealed that he and Avinash had planned to go home for the Easter holidays. On Monday April 5, they had left their campsite at 13 Miles Arakaka, together with other workers and travelled to the Arakaka Landing.
Their intentions, he had explained, was to catch a vehicle to Port Kaituma and then a boat from there to Mabaruma.
However, those plans fell through when they arrived late at the Arakaka Landing that evening and could not locate any transportation.
The brothers, along with their colleagues, reportedly stopped at a shop. There eyewitnesses had detailed that Avinash was drinking a few beers with his workmates.
Shimroy said that he had left the shop close to 21:00 hrs. in search of a place where they would spend the night until the following morning.
Some 55 minutes later he reportedly returned to the shop but found it closed. His “bossman” had told him about a fight, but Shimroy admitted that he failed to pay attention to the details. Instead, he said that he asked whether anyone had seen his brother. Shimroy said he began searching for Avinash that same night but could not find him anywhere.
He said too, that he had even returned to their campsite to see if Avinash was there but had only met one of their workmates, who had a fresh wound to his face.
Shimroy said that he became very worried and filed a missing person’s report with the Arakaka police before continuing his search.
His search would come to a tragic end when a party of policemen accompanied by his “bossman” fished Avinash’s decomposing remains from the Arakaka River. The wounded workmate reportedly went into hiding shortly after.
Though faced with immense despair, Zelena is daily trying to come to grips with her son’s demise. “He was my baby and I am trying to figure out if it was the devil that snatched him from me or if it was God’s will for him to die so soon,” she said.
Nevertheless, she continued, “he is gone and there is not much that can be done about that.” But Zelena has a renewed game plan, which, she said, will see her doing everything within her power to protect her only surviving son. “I am not going to let him get snatched away from me too,” she said with confidence.

 

---

---