“We are not prepared” – Aishalton Toshao

COVID-19 pandemic

…as other villages cite food crisis

Indigenous villages across Guyana have been faced with grave economic hardships, due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, which continues to linger. Now, village leaders have shared grave concerns about their state of unpreparedness, especially in the health sector.

Toshao of Aishalton, Michael Thomas

Speaking with Guyana Times on Monday, Toshao Michael Thomas of Aishalton in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo), said while there are no cases in his village, they remain vulnerable due to medical shortfalls.
With only five health workers to service a community of over 1265 people, they remain at great threat, should any case be detected within their boundaries.
“We are not prepared. We are not prepared in any way. We have a hospital and in April, they were to set up a building at the doctors’ quarters. Since April, nothing has been done and we only have a medic, one nurse and two health workers so we are not prepared in any way, should there be a case in Aishalton,” Thomas relayed.
He said the village would have taken the initiative to construct a gate, preventing outsiders from entering his village. However, unknown individuals continue to traverse the access road to the Murudi mines, which passes through the community.

Toshao of Kamwatta Hill, Maurice Henry

“Since March 25, we erected a gate to monitor the movement of people and our place is different from the other villages. We have a main road heading into the mining area at Murudi so people from all areas continue to traverse this area, although the strict measures in place. So that is the challenge we are facing right now.”

High unemployment
The Toshao expressed that for some time, medevac services to the village was put on hold due to ongoing repairs on the aircraft. The only way to seek external medical facilities was through an ambulance.
“Medevac put on a stop. The medevac that normally come down was under repairs and I’m not sure if it is up and running. We have an ambulance that was given to the district and it is presently based in Aishalton,” he detailed.
Along with the health crisis at hand, it was mentioned that the villages are facing a high unemployment rate, especially those in the public sector. They are now left to encourage farming activity to sustain the populace.
Commenting on the situation, Thomas said, “Everything slow up in this place. People normally go to Lethem to work in the stores, shops, mason or construction site and so on. All have returned home and there is no other means of employment in the place. We have our farms that we rely on. We have been encouraging farmers to continue farming or probably extend their farms and so on. Really and truly, there is no economic activity in the place, other than the shops we have.”

Food crisis in Kamwatta
In Kamwatta Hill in Region One (Barima-Waini), access to face masks, personal protective equipment or sanitising agents is very scarce.
The whopping number of confirmed cases throughout the region has made it extremely worrying for Toshao Maurice Henry, who leads the village, situated in Mabaruma. According to him, they remain “unprotected” from the brunt force of COVID-19.
“We have not experienced any cases in the village so far but we’re unprotected because we haven’t got no type of sanitisers, face masks and necessary things to protect ourselves. Nobody from the Ministry come to enlighten us on what is going to take place. We left like this,” Toshao Henry explained during an interview with this publication on Monday.
The village leader said health workers are tasked with reporting any case of the virus to the Mabaruma Hospital, located about 15 miles away from the village. He said the community of over 350 persons is also facing job losses and economic hardship. Moreover, there is an impending food crisis.
“We have the health workers and the health hut. If anything comes up, we have to notify the health worker and he will transmit the message to the Mabaruma Hospital… Right now, the situation here is worse because many people who had jobs teaching, the gold miners and all had to return because of COVID. Everybody right now is out of jobs. We’re facing almost a food crisis because we cannot get money, we cannot get a job. Everybody just stalled here,” the chief notified.
Earlier this year, the village would have received a 2019 grant and they had planned to use this money to create opportunities for persons to farm and earn money. This has been put on hold since officials could not access the cash. Instead, they were told that it would be available after the elections impasse is resolved. Meanwhile, persons are suffering and continue to wait for months.
“Up to now, we cannot change the cheque. They told me that until after the election, then we would have clearance to change the cheque. That was a project where the people agreed that we would clear three areas of land and utilise this money to create employment. Nothing has been done so far,” Henry lamented.
Four migrant families currently reside at Kamwatta Hill and he said it is important to track where they are coming from since the virus is spread easily. Presently, some residents have made facemasks to conduct their daily activities while others do not have.
A few days ago, the South Rupununi District Council (SRDC) decided to lock down all 21 Indigenous communities within its remit, after continued challenges in advocating for mining to be removed as an essential service and local infections increasing.
In a statement, the representative body said this is the choice taken to protect communities from further spread of COVID-19, in light of five positive cases across three villages and lack of healthcare resources being allocated to the region. Alarmingly, these villages also indicated that it takes almost one week for sick patients to be tested, even after reporting symptoms associated with COVID-19. There is an additional waiting time to receive the results. (G12)