Land given to overseas based charity organisation to build warehouse taken away by Gov’t

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Mrs. Eslene Richmond-Shockley

The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government is being asked by the Atlanta-based Caring For Others Inc. (CFOI) to return land the organisation acquired from the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) during the A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) government. The business has hired the services of Hughes Fields & Stoby to defend and preserve its interest.

In 2016 CFOI applied to the Government of Guyana for a parcel of land to house a warehousing facility.   The APNU+AFC was in government from 15^th May 2015- 1^st August 2020.

Leader of the PPP/C, Mr. Bharrat Jadgeo, has repeatedly threatened whenever the PPP/C returns to government they will take away lands given out by the APNU+AFC government.

In 2018 NICIL’s Properties Department leased lands (Plot A2) in Plantation Peters Hall to erect CFOI facilities and made all its payments to NICIL. The organisation has in its possession all their receipts and has put systems in place to start building.

But in July 2022 they received some disturbing information NICIL had removed them from the assigned location and someone else was given that spot as “represented on a current plan of the area deposited in the deeds registry on July 20, 2022.”

In Guyana, CFOI has provided millions of United States dollars’ worth of charity and social responses in several regions. According to the company, given the volume of work being done, the Board of Directors had taken a decision to set up warehousing facilities in Guyana, as had be done in the Caribbean and elsewhere, to make their services more home based.

Mrs. Eslene Richmond-Shockley, a Guyanese by birth, is Founder President & Chief Executive Officer of CFOI, which is a human services organisation. The mission of CFOI is to “eradicate poverty through feeding, educating clothing and housing individuals and families around the world,” and has been in operation for more than two decades.

Richmond -Shockley has received several prestigious state, federal and private sector national awards for her work.

In 2021, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Volunteering services from President Joe Biden. She is the founder and host of the International Poverty Forum (IPF). IPF prides itself as a “solutions-driven ‘think tank’ of the best and brightest minds addressing the issue of global poverty.” The fifth forum is slated for 17^th March 2023.

CFOI is not taking the government’s decision sitting down. Pointing out what is happening to the organisation, which is non-political, is an unfair practice and not good for anyone, the body has explicitly made known it is in the business of assisting poor people and giving them a second chance to live with dignity, and is committed to playing their part in helping any government and the people of Guyana to make this ideal their present-day reality.

CFOI said it retains vested interest in constructing their warehouse to continue the work which they feel God has called them to do.

Village Voice is reliably informed that members of the United States Congress from Georgia and New York are investigating the matter.

For more on Caring for Others refer https://caring4others.org/

Others have had similar experience as CFOI. Persons who were sold houses from the closed Enmore Estate, East Coast Demerara, and leased lands from the closed Wales Estate on the West Bank Demerara by the APNU+AFC government were issued eviction notices.

Some took the government to court and won. However, the government continues to engage in actions to hinder peaceful occupation. In Wales the government has devised a strategy to keep lessees off the land by either removing the bridges to get to the farms or allowing them to fall into disrepair.

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