Cane harvester who lost legs gets new home under MoM initiative

An amputee and his wife were presented with a new house on Sunday compliments of the Men on Mission (MOM) initiative.
The new house was handed over to 62-year-old Muhammed Hassan Ramdular and his wife Fazeeroon Ramdular of Vryheid, West Canje, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne). The couple had been living in a building owned by relatives of Ramdular.

The former cane harvester had one of his legs amputated in 2017 and the second three years later. He also had a finger amputated.
“After the amputation, I can’t do anything. The only thing I can do I just sit in a wheelchair until in the afternoon and gone and bath and gone inside and pray for things to change.”
His wife related that the house in which they lived had a leaking roof but she secured a sheet of zinc to repair the leak but it was not sufficient. Buckets were hung to catch water pouring down when it rains.
“I would hang up buckets and have to climb up to take them down. My neighbour gave me the buckets n and I put them over the bed because where he sleep… The hall is leaking too; the house was rotten,” the woman added.
In addition, the house did not have bathroom facilities. Regional Vice Chairman Zamal Hussain had made an initial visit to the couple during which he leant of their plight.

As such, he arranged through the MOM initiative which saw several donors coming forward to assist in the construction of a house for the couple.
During the handing over ceremony on Sunday, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha echoed that the MOM initiative is a brainchild of President Dr Irfaan Ali and is intended to assist vulnerable groups.
“The government has a very robust housing programme. Thousands of Guyanese are beneficiaries from that programme. Almost 35,000 Guyanese would have benefited from the housing and house lot programme from the government but this particular programme; Men on Mission was conceptualised and created with the intention that we will build these houses for people like Mr Ramdular.”
Mustapha noted that scores of persons have already benefitted from the initiative.
“This is a programme that is very humane and one that addresses the concerns of the vulnerable group and helps to bring back hope to these people.”
“We work to bring people together so that they can help other groups and this case here is one where we have five persons coming together and Mr Ramdular will be the beneficiary,” Mustapha pointed out.
Meanwhile, in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) the Mohammed family was the main donor in a Bath Settlement pensioner being given a new house. In May last year, a fire destroyed a building owned by the 79-year-old pensioner who suffers from a hearing impediment and three of her grandchildren.