Homeless but not hopeless

May 29, 2022 News

---

…two vagrants talk about life on the streets

By Shervin Belgrave

Kaieteur News – Despite their many shortcomings and day-to-day struggle with substance abuse, two vagrants on Independence Day told Kaieteur News that they are still hopeful of turning their lives around so that they can be reintegrated into society.

I caught up with the two – 29-year-old Edward Gittens and 45-year-old Omadella Greene – at an Independence Day medical outreach hosted for the homeless at Naeem’s Kitchen on Brickdam. The outreach was organised by the United States Embassy’s Civil Affairs Team and its local partners – Guyana Medical Relief, the Central Islamic Organisation of Guyana, the Guyana Cancer Society, the Cheddi Jagan Dental School, the National AIDS Programme Secretariat, SEWA International, the International Organisation for Migration and Roberto’s Barber Shop.
While taking some photographs of the outreach, my attention was drawn to a young man who was getting his teeth cleaned by a dentist. He was neatly dressed, looked intelligent but was badly in need of a haircut.
After the dentist was finished with the young man, I decided to approach him for a brief chat.
He introduced himself as Edward Gittens and was very mannerly and surprisingly eloquent.

When he found out that he was speaking with a reporter that wanted to hear his story, Gittens said, “First of all I must tell you I am not an important person but a homeless man due to a long, long story”.
Gittens related that he is a father of a nine year-old girl and has been living in the streets since June of last year after a house he was renting at Norton Street, Georgetown got destroyed by fire.
However, according to him, that is not the main reason he ended up on the streets.
“My troubles started way before then, I used to live with my child-mother and daughter in Linden but we were not getting along well because of my bad ways,” he related.
Gittens explained that “I used to drink a lot of alcohol” and this bad habit, he said, led to him being separated from his family.
It was after he and his daughter’s mother parted ways that he decided to rent a house in Georgetown. But things did not get any better. In fact, he said that his “bad ways got worse” and his life went further downhill.
The fire that took away his home and everything he had in his possession was just the final nail in the coffin to make him completely homeless.
These days, Gittens sleeps on stands at the various bus parks. He said that he has no skills and as such works as a labourer.
“I would go down to Orange Walk and empty garbage bins for people and do any other labour jobs I can find,” he shared.
But living on the streets, he confessed, has not been a good one. For this reason, he confided that he desperately wants to turn his life around.
“As a homeless person you don’t get treated well, people would pass late at nights in buses and throw bottles at us, taunt us and even want to assault us,” he shared.
To stay out of trouble, he said, he would look for “safe” spots to sleep when night falls.
At the outreach, Gittens asked doctors for help in getting the appropriate medical help to end his addiction.
“I spoke with the doctors and asked them for some help to get into the clinic at the Georgetown Hospital, so on Monday I will make that step to turn my life around,” Gittens said.
His hope for a better life, he revealed, is because of his daughter with whom he hopes to rekindle a good relationship with in the near future.
According to the man, he misses her a lot and wishes to once again see her regularly.
After ending his conversation with this newspaper, Gittens was afforded a haircut – one of the services provided at the outreach.
At the outreach too, I was able to speak with Omadella Greene whose brilliant smile was rather inviting.
But Greene too admitted that she has been battling an addiction. She said that she is addicted to “Banko Wine” and has been homeless for nearly 20 years now. The woman revealed that she is a mother of nine children and because of her bad habit some of them currently live in state-run homes and others have been adopted.
Greene related that she became a substance abuser after surviving multiple abusive relationships.
“I was a good woman; I was a vendor that used to work hard and sell fish and greens (vegetables) at Stabroek Market but when I reach up with these people (men) they always end up abusing me and I does end up running away and then would find myself entrapped in another abusive relationship and I would run again. They always beating me, chopping me and stabbing me,” she shared as she pointed to multiple scars about her body.
Feeling insecure and disgusted for making bad decisions over the years, Greene said that alcohol became her companion and before long her addiction to it caused her to end up living on the streets.
Greene currently does cleaning jobs at shops and restaurants in the city for $1000 to $2000 for a couple of hours and half of the sum earned, she disclosed, is spent on “Banko Wine”.
She admitted that she lives with regrets and would often hide from her children when they come looking for her.
“One time my son come and look for me on his bicycle and I hide but somehow he saw me and he seh ‘mommy is here you living, just bare up I will build a house for you’,” recounted the woman.
But according to the woman, she laughed at his remark to hide her shame since she is well aware that she is the one who should be taking care of her children’s wellbeing and not the other way around.
Despite continuing to struggle with her addiction, Greene, like Gittens, assured me that she hasn’t lost hope. She said she has hopes of “becoming normal again.”
“Me ain’t give up hope yet,” she asserted. But while she tries her best to make that change, Greene said, for now, she still has to “sleep where the night catches me” and fend off the dangerous predators lurking in the dark corners to pounce on female vagrants.
“It’s very dangerous to live on the streets; there are men that try to rape you. I was attacked before but I defended myself and called for help. I was rescued, so now I try to group up with other vagrants who will fight together with me if anyone attack,” she shared.
At the outreach, Greene, who opted to not be photographed, got new clothes, a pair of eyeglasses and some treatment for a skin condition.

 

---

---