By Kayode Adebiyi
President Irfaan Ali of Guyana has launched an initiative to ensure the coordination of support for survivors and families of those who lost their lives in a recent ferry disaster.
In a sstatement to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja, Ali described the initiative as H.E.A.R.T, meaning Hope, Empathy, Aid, Resilience, and Trust.
He said the initiative would focus on hope for the grieving, empathy for the broken, aid for the hurting, resilience for the journey ahead, and trust that victims and families would never be forgotten.
“We are still in the shadow of that dark hour when the sea claimed the lives of so many of our loved ones who were on board the M.V. Barima.
“I promised in the early hours of that tragedy that my government will stand with the survivors and the families of the victims and those still unaccounted for.
“I said we will do so not for a fleeting moment, not until the headlines fade, but throughout the long, tender journey of healing that stretches far beyond this period of immediate grief.
“We do not offer this extended and sustained hand of support out of duty alone. Our concern is not contrived. It is a part of who and what we are as a nation.
“We have always been a people who understand that grief is not a solitary road—it is a path we walk together, shoulder to shoulder,” he said.
The president said the initiative should, however, not be mistaken for compensation, as the grief could not be “balanced by any ledger”.
He said the support was born out of the refusal to let anyone walk through their sorrow alone and that it’s the kind of solidarity that binds the people of Guyana in their common humanity.
“We are a people who, when darkness descends, light lamps for one another.
“We are the descendants of ancestors, who knew suffering and still chose solidarity; who understood that to lift another is to lift oneself,” Ali said.
Ali said those values were bound by the unshakable belief that every life is precious, every loss is shared, and every survivor deserves a nation that remembers.
He also announced a national body to coordinate, mobilise and foster the initiative, which would ensure and sustain material, moral and spiritual supports.
Ali said the initiative would be overseen by trusted and respected religious and civil society persons, drawn from across Guyana, led by Mr Carl Stewart.
“They will carry the prayers of every faith, the hopes of every heart, and the sacred traditions that bind us—whether spoken in the quiet of a church, sung in the temple, or whispered in the mosque.
“They will offer practical hands of service and provide a safety net of support and compassion that no family affected by this tragedy will slip through,” he said.
He also announced that Mr Eamon Courtenay of Belize would assist in working out the modalities relating to financial assistance for the survivors and the victims’ families.
The president appealed to every Guyanese to stand together as one people, saying: “We do not abandon our own. We rise from the ashes of sorrow with arms wide open.
“We carry the memory of every soul lost, not as a weight that crushes, but as a light that guides us toward a future forged in kindness, unity, and love.”
The MV Barima issued a distress call on July 18, having overturned while ferrying passengers from the capital, Georgetown, to Port Kaituma in Guyana’s northwest.
Officials said that the MV Barima was initially thought to have been carrying 116 passengers and 17 crew members.
However, 32 people rescued from the disaster were not recorded in the ferry’s manifest, putting the number of potential victims much higher. (NAN)
Edited by Ismail Abdulaziz