Mother of paralysed child offered public assistance form

After years

Two and a half years after Bibi Khan was denied a public assistance form to apply for aid in supporting her 11-year-old son Mathew Zaman, who was left paralysed following a motor vehicle accident outside their home at Felicity Railway Embankment, East Coast Demerara (ECD), she was contacted on Tuesday by the Human Service and Social Security Ministry with the aim of having her receive public assistance.

This came just two days after Guyana Times had published an article highlighting Khan’s plight after she was denied a public assistance form by an employee of that Ministry, who told the mother of eight to go and seek help from the father of the child.
Khan said that in April 2018, while she was battling to find resources to keep her son alive, she went to the Ministry with all of the required documents to seek help. She said while she was there, she encountered the rude employee who belittled her.
“When I went there, she told me to sit down. I sit down for over an hour and a half, and everybody coming in and going and collect and walk out. So, I went back to her, and she said, ‘I already talk to you…’ I went back and sit and then I go for lunch. When I go back, I told her I have a sick child at home…when I show her, she asked me where the father of the child deh, and start giving me attitude”, Khan explained.
The child’s mother said she kept asking the woman for the form, since she had to return home, but rather than being given the form, she said the woman told her to get all of the relevant documents, which she already had.
“She told me, ‘Well, you can sit and wait’, and she locked the door and never came back out,” she explained.
Khan said that since that incident she never went back to the Ministry, and she has been battling on her own with the help of a few persons.
In December 2017, the 11-year-old was struck by a minibus in front of his home. Following the accident, he was admitted as a patient in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Georgetown Public Hospital for over a month, and persons there thought he would have died.

It is now three years later, and Mathew is still battling through the odds. He sustained a fractured skull, which resulted in swelling in the brain; damage to his lungs, and injury to his spine, which hinders his mobility.
Following the accident, Bibi left her job as a domestic worker to care for her son. Due to the financial strain on the family to keep little Mathew alive, Khan’s daughters were unable to write CXC.
Khan said her daughters are trying everything possible to get a job to assist her, but because they are not qualified, they are finding it difficult to find a job.
After the accident, the driver who struck down the child was charged for dangerous driving. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison, but appealed the case and was freed.
Anyone desirous of helping Mathew can contact the family on (592) 659-6766.