“It hard on me” – woman whose husband is incarcerated

– children unable to attend school

Parbatie Mahadeo, a 36-year-old security guard who resides at Rose Hall Town in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), has said she is struggling to take care of her family since the 2023 incarceration of her husband for wounding his neighbour.
Cane harvester Mark Anderson was slapped with an 11-year sentence on July 22, 2023 after a jury found him guilty of feloniously wounding his neighbour. The 27-year-old Anderson is married to Mahadeo, and their union has produced seven children.

Mahadeo has said she is struggling to take care of herself and six of her children, aged between two and 12 years.
Her eldest child, now 18, has moved out, and is now taking care of her own family. In 2020, this child was forced to work in order to help contribute to the household. Pregnant in 2020, Mahadeo had reportedly asked her 14-year-old daughter to be the sole breadwinner of the family.

She and her children were then living in a zinc house with no rooms. However, through the assistance of Food for The Poor Guyana Limited, she was given the house in which she now lives.
Mahadeo has said she believes the continuous cycle of poverty and prevalence of several social ills have led to the current situation she and her husband have found themselves in.
Her husband, she explained, grew up without parents. “His grandmother said that, after his father passed away, he was staying with his stepmother; and after she passed away, he started living with she,” Mahadeo disclosed. “The grandmother say (that) since he was a baby, his mother went away, and they never see she back,” Mahadeo revealed.
Mahadeo said her childhood was also challenging, although she grew up with her parents. Her father was a security guard and her mother was a domestic helper. She was taken out of school in Grade Seven because there were four others in the home who were attending school, and her mother could not afford to support her educational pursuits. However, she did not venture into the world of work until she was in her 30s.
As she awaits her husband’s release from prison, Mahadeo has said, she is finding it very difficult to address the basic needs of her family.
Schools have reopened on Monday, but none of her four school-aged children have thus far been able to attend.
“I doing security work, and the lil salary that ah getting, ah dose try to make ends meet. Some days they get and some days they don’t get; some days they go to school and some days they don’t go to school, because I don’t have to give them much to go to school,” an impassioned Mahadeo has said.
Disclosing that during those times when she is unable to afford milk for her two-year-old she has to breastfeed the child, Mahadeo declared, “I am in this situation because my husband is not around; my husband is in prison. He is spending a sentence because of an issue.” However, she did not elaborate.
“It is really because he was the breadwinner for the house, and it is really hard on me now. I would like if the Government or the Minister could look into his matter and make his sentence be a little smaller; because he (has already served) a lot of time and he has six children,” a wistful Mahadeo declared.
Anderson’s incarceration has resulted from his being convicted of wounding a fellow villager with whom he had had an ongoing feud. Anderson had reportedly attacked this villager with a cutlass in retaliation for his allegedly stealing Anderson’s bicycle.
Mahadeo’s home has neither electricity nor potable water. She obtains water from the main connection at the side of the street. She is pleading with the public for assistance to provide for her children. Mahadeo can be reached on cell #677-4538. (Andrew Carmichael)