The Central Islamic Organisation of Guyana (CIOG) on Wednesday handed over two vehicles to the Health Ministry, which will be utilised at the New Amsterdam Funeral Parlour in Berbice and Regions Five (Mahaica-Berbice) and Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).
The vehicles were donated to the CIOG by Caricom Auto Sales, Mohamed’s Enterprise and A Ali and Sons at a total cost of $7.5 million.
Acting President of the CIOG, Gulzar Nambar explained that the organisation offers funeral services to citizens of Georgetown almost free of cost – a service which they are now looking to expand to the Berbice area.
“We want to recognise the amount of work the CIOG has done, we know that we have a very successful story with the funeral service in Georgetown, everyone we take care of are the less fortunate, who do not have no one and we actually bury them free of cost,” Nambar said.
“We are actually spreading out now to the Berbice area which was a long-awaited service to be done, prayers be to god, that with the Minister involved at this time here we are actually getting it done…besides the two hearses that will be working on the Berbice area we’ll be having the mortuary, at which we’ll be assisting and this is collaborated or co-operated between the CIOG and the Ministry of Health so we will definitely take care of the Berbice area,” he stated.
Nambar further extended his thanks to the donors of the vehicles.
Receiving the vehicles, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony noted that in some cases many persons face challenges in getting their deceased relative to their final resting place – a challenge which these vehicles will help to eliminate in Berbice.
“We know that a lot of people would have challenges in getting maybe one of their dead relatives from wherever, maybe the site where they die to the mortuary or maybe sometimes from the mortuary to take them back home or even take them to the cemetery. What we want to ensure is that the person who died, that the rights are done in the right way, give that person the dignity that they deserve and so, what we are trying to do here is to provide such a service,” he stated.
Dr Anthony also extended his thanks to the donors.
“Allow [me], on behalf of Excellency President Dr Irfaan Ali and the Government of Guyana, to express our gratitude to the CIOG and to the donors for the donation that we received,” he said.
“We would’ve had several discussions on how we can improve the funeral services in Berbice and we decided on a course of action, which would mean that if we collaborate and put our efforts together that we’ll have a far superior service than we have currently in Berbice.”
He noted that the Government would have invested in creating a new mortuary and, “What we’re seeking to do with this collaboration, and this is for us to have a joint partnership in managing the mortuary and their responsibilities on both sides but what we want is efficient management”.
