200 children of dismissed East Canje sugar workers get free school supplies

The East Berbice Sugar Workers Relief Committee (EBSWRC) has provided school bags and other school essentials to 200 children of dismissed workers, who were attached to the former Rose Hall Sugar Estate which was closed by Government in December 2017.

Children of workers, who were dismissed from the Rose Hall Sugar Estate received their school supplies on Saturday afternoon. Last week, Workers Relief Committee provided the same supplies to 150 students from the Corriverton Primary, Skeldon Primary and Messiah Primary.
Over 2000 workers at the Skeldon Estate were sent home when Government closed that estate in December 2017.
Speaking to the children and their parents at the Rose Hall Primary School, Regional Vice Chairman Dennis DeRoop explained that the Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) administration has always been superlative of the former sugar workers and their families, more so the children.
“At the Regional Democratic Council, you are always in our hearts. There is no RDC meeting that we have every month that we don’t mention something that is happening in East Canje,” DeRoop said.
DeRoop, who is also a part of the East Berbice Sugar Workers Relief Committee said that apart from the school bag distribution, the RDC has put other measures in place to provide some measure of relief to the families of the former workers.
“We implemented a 30-seater bus to take the secondary school children from Canje to New Amsterdam but we recognised that the one bus is inadequate for all the children so we are trying to implement a second one from the reopening next week,” DeRoop said to a thunderous applause.
Following the closure of the Skeldon and the Rose Hall Estates in December 2017, the East Berbice Sugar Workers Relief Committee was formed. One of its first projects was the supply of hot meals at schools on the Upper Corentyne.