More than 6,000 children and adults from across the town of Linden got some early Christmas cheer over the weekend as the Caring For Others non-governmental organization handed out gifts and household items.
The initiative represented one of the largest holiday gift distribution drive to ever take place in Linden.
Member of Parliament Jermaine Figueira, who has been partnering with the Caring For Others Organisation since 2015, said the initiative was a tremendous success, thanks to the Founder and President of Caring For Others, Eslene Richmond-Shockley, who is a US-based Guyanese.
“We targeted 6,000 children in the Linden community, a representation of the eight constituencies. We also had people out of the constituencies as far as Coomacka who came, as well as Bamia that came and they too were also in receipt of gifts. Six thousand kids, and we started off the programme giving five toys to each child but people keep coming and coming and we had to go beyond that six thousand and we had to go four times, and fill four trucks to come back and give,” Figueira said.
In addition to the children receiving gifts, 80 senior citizens were presented with food hampers, while 50 teachers, 20 nurses and two auxiliary staff from across the town were gifted with microwaves, televisions and mattresses.
“I think it is a great initiative, especially for the children because there are parents who couldn’t afford to buy gifts for their children. And this is also good for the teachers, and I just got myself a microwave, and so I am really thankful for it,” Tiffany LaRose, a teacher, told News Source.
In the days leading up to Saturday, the Caring For Others organisation also journeyed to Ituni, Kwakwani, Hururu and Kuru Kuru, sharing out gifts to more than 3,000 additional children.
Figueira said the distribution of toys, household articles and food items is just one component of what the Caring for Others Organization has been doing.
“Besides the distributions that we do, be it clothing, be it toys, be it footwear, be it mattresses, television, microwaves, sewing machines, we embark on an economic empowerment project where we would have given financial assistance to people to help them formulate their own business, so that they could provide for their family. The organization is more of a hands up approach rather than a handout approach. We want to empower people, teach them how to fish rather than to give them a fish. But in understanding the realities of the time, sometime people just need a fish just to survive. We care for both needs,” he explained.
Sewing machines and agricultural tools are given out year-round to support persons in those fields.
The Caring For Others Organization has offices in the US, South Africa, the Philippines, Grenada, Antigua, Guyana and a number of other countries.
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