Fire victims to finally get new home from Beharry Build Partnership

Sherry Bacchus and Imran Khan are soon to become official new home owners through the Beharry Build Partnership.
The family has been through their fair share of challenges, having lost their home to fire in 2014, leaving them and their three children, one of whom is physically challenged, homeless.
After losing their home, the family went through many hardships, including having to live in a dog kennel, finding a place to rent and dealing with an unscrupulous landlord, leaving the family with the only option of occupying the chicken coop, the only surviving structure on the land.
When it seemed things could not get worse, heavy rains caused the area to flood, wetting their mattresses as they slept on the ground and the family was forced to seek refuge from a kind stranger until the water subsided.
The couple then became aware of the work of Habitat for Humanity Guyana Inc. (HFHGI) through the Enterprise Youth Development Group, whose chairperson is Samantha Persaud, and made contact with the entity in the hope of gaining assistance to build a new home.
Upon contact, representatives from the “A Dollar makes a Difference” partnership between Edward B. Beharry & Company Ltd (EBB) and Habitat for Humanity, came to verify the family’s claims and shortlisted them for the building of a new home under the second phase of the campaign.
The Beharry Build Partnership called “A Dollar makes a Difference” between Habitat for Humanity Guyana Inc and Edward B. Beharry and Company Limited has been actively committed, since 2014, to provide low income families, who would not be able to secure a commercial mortgage, with homes.
This partnership between a non-profit and a for profit organisation is the only one in Guyana which mobilises funds from the general public to help support a social cause. This is made possible as the EBB takes one dollar off every unit of item sold and donates it to the Habitat for Humanity Guyana.
Since the projects commencement in 2014, eleven families have benefited from various housing needs ranging from new homes, sanitary blocks, home repairs, and improvements.
To date the partnership has generated over $17,000,000, raising awareness of the role housing plays in poverty reduction and strengthening livelihoods, while encouraging commercial entities or individuals to join as partners and improve the lives of families across Guyana.
Through the “A Dollar makes a Difference” partnership, this family will be receiving a two-bedroom concrete home, with three mattresses donated from Comfort Sleep and other household items from anonymous donors.
The Beharry/Habitat partnership is characterised by the organisation’s corporate responsibility in an atmosphere of collaboration to further the prospects of Guyanese families’ recognising the joyfulness of owning their own home and improving their livelihood.
The official handing over ceremony will take place on November 1 at the couple’s residence at 68 Nonpareil, East Coast Demerara.