Today (May 16, 2018), seventeen (17) female workers, who were employed at Wales Estate, received food hampers compliments of the Guyana Solidarity Movement – New York (GSM-NY). This exercise is a continuation of a similar activity last Friday (May 11, 2018) which saw the ex-female workers of East Demerara Estate receiving hampers.
Altogether, they were twenty-nine (29) females that were employed in the fields and factory of Wales. However, the difference – twelve (12) – had previously received hampers. The GSM-NY decided that some women shouldn’t receive hampers twice whereas others would only receive one hamper.
The recipient workers were very appreciative of the GSM-NY gesture, which is supported by the GAWU, and thanked those who made the exercise a reality. They shared that since the closure of Wales Estate, nearly a year and a half ago, life for them has been nothing short of difficult. They said their live is completely different from what it was when they were employed at the estate. The former Wales workers shared that simple things like buying ice cream for their children, or to cook something special has simply become unaffordable. For some families, both husband and wife were employed at Wales and this has presented very grave difficulties in the home.
The recipients revealed that it is not easy to find steady employment even in Georgetown. For some who managed to find a job, they lamented the conditions of work and the wages they are receiving. They sadly shared that today the pride they felt as sugar workers is nothing more than a distant memory now. For them going pass the closed estate is heart-breaking as they recognise what life has become for them. Some of them said that given the situation they have found themselves in since the estate’s closure, they have had to lean on their severance payments to meet life’s expenditures. Now for some, their severance payments are exhausted and they are either jobless or earning very little and have the real problem of deciding what next they cannot afford.
The women workers are also very worried about the youth in the communities. They shared that some people have had to stop sending their children to school on a regular basis. They wonder what would become of those children’s lives in the years to come. When the estate was operational, they said, it would offer such persons a chance to get a job and a real possibility of making a life. Today, that door has been firmly shut and they see the youth having nothing at all to turn to except maybe a life of criminality. This they shared is frightening and will make the bad situation even worse.
They called on the Government, even at this eleventh hour, to see what they could do to assist them. The times, they say, are getting tougher and the situation is becoming scarier by the day. They said they need help and call on His Excellency President David Granger and his Administration to come to Wales and to meet with them and give them an opportunity to share with the Government what life is like without Wales Estate.
The distribution will next move to Skeldon and Rose Hall Estates, where aggregately fifty-nine (59) women workers are to receive hampers.
