Angenie Abel offers quality care-giving services through Safe Haven Guyana

Jun 29, 2025 News, Waterfalls Magazine

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Turning grief into positivity…

By Shania Williams

Kaieteur News – In a quiet corner of Guyana’s care revolution stands Angenie Abel, a woman whose calm resilience manifested her journey in providing quality care-giving around the country.

A mother, entrepreneur, and woman of deep conviction, Angenie is the co-founder of Safe Haven Guyana, a platform designed to connect families in crisis with compassionate, trained caregivers.

But Safe Haven didn’t begin as a business idea — it began in heartbreak. Speaking with The Waterfalls, Abel explained the inspiration behind Safe Haven, hardship she faced dealing with grief and intense stress, handling it all on her own.

At the time, she was juggling graduate studies, raising a young son, and working full-time — all while care-giving for her father, who was diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer.  The weight of it, she told this magazine was crushing.

She said, “While I was studying for my Master’s degree, my son was still very young. Though I had family support, it was sometimes hard for them to assist consistently. I started looking for reliable help — someone I could trust with both competence and care. I found none.”

Abel felt she hit rock bottom when finding out about her fathers’ advance stage of his illness. “It had already spread to his lungs and other organs by the time we found out,” she recalled noting that eventually, he required round-the-clock care.

“I remember going from health center to health center, pleading with nurses to help after hours. One nurse aide did, she came during her lunch breaks and evenings,” she said.

All of this unfolded during the peak of COVID-19. She recalled, “It was the most difficult time of my life, and honestly, I’m still learning to live with that grief.”

Abel noted that balancing her studies, parenting, and care giving was incredibly hard. The emotional toll of watching a loved one decline while feeling helpless; it is something she said she wouldn’t wish on anyone. And then there was the challenge of reliable service, not just financially, but practically.

“Finding people who you can trust to provide care, especially in a crisis, felt nearly impossible, “an emotional Abel recalled.

The emotional toll, combined with a glaring lack of accessible care services, led her to a realization: there had to be a better way for families like hers.

From that place of grief and urgency, Safe Haven has created a place where people like her can find reliable, professional support.

The journey of getting the care agency off the ground however, began far from digital platforms and urban centers.  It was fostered in the small, tight-knit community of Ituni, located along the Linden-Kwakwani Road in Region Ten where her innate drive to serve others followed her into adulthood.

Abel built a career in procurement, logistics, training, and event management, all while quietly nurturing the idea of Safe Haven in the background. “It’s been a quiet, persistent project in the background for years, something I couldn’t let go of,” she admitted.

Officially founded in 2020, Safe Haven began as a small initiative to link families in need with care-giving assistance.

Over time, with clarity of purpose and crucial funding from the IDB’s Digital Impact Advisory Fund, the idea blossomed into a fully functioning care giving app, one of the first of its kind in Guyana. “I was one of three Caribbean women chosen for that grant,” Abel said with quiet pride. “It gave Safe Haven the wings it needed.”

The platform now allows families to access a vetted network of trained care-givers, whether they need support for elderly relatives, individuals recovering from illness, or children with special needs.

And it’s working. “We’ve matched dozens of families,” she said. “And more importantly, we’ve given work to caregivers who would otherwise go unseen.”

Despite the success, launching a care-centered platform has not been without challenges. Abel speaks openly about the emotional toll, financial pressure, and the complexities of building trust in such a personal industry. “People aren’t just hiring a service,” she explained. “They’re opening their homes, their lives.

That takes time, and it takes proof that what we offer is safe, genuine, and professional.” As a mother, businesswoman, and leader, balancing all her roles is no easy task. She credits her support system for keeping her steady. “I have a very supportive partner, family, and friends. That’s been everything. I don’t do this alone.”

One of the most fulfilling aspects of her work, she said, is seeing real lives changed. She recalled a story of a daughter struggling to care for her mother after a stroke. Safe Haven matched them with a caregiver who eventually became part of their family. “Seeing someone go from exhaustion to peace, that’s why we do this.”

Looking to the future, Abel hopes to expand Safe Haven’s reach beyond Guyana, beginning with targeted steps across the Caribbean.

For now, her focus remains on strengthening the platform, improving service delivery, and honouring both the families who need care and the care-givers who provide it.

For her, Safe Haven is far more than a business, it is a legacy of compassion, shaped by loss and built on the belief that everyone deserves care and caregivers deserve respect.

“I want people to say we made care accessible. That we treated people with dignity, both those receiving and giving care,” she said. To young women and aspiring entrepreneurs, her advice is simple: “Stick to your vision. Even when it’s hard, especially when it’s hard.”

Asked if she could whisper something to her younger self? The business woman said, “Stop procrastinating. Just start!”

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• Angenie Abel, Care-giving services, Safe Haven app, Safe Haven Guyana

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