GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) — Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali on Monday announced the establishment of a national body to coordinate, mobilise and foster the necessary work of healing following the July 18 sinking of the MV Barima, which has resulted in over 70 deaths while dozens remain missing. Ali, in a broadcast, said that the national body shall be known as the HEART Initiative for hope, empathy, aid, resilience, and trust. Trust that it will never be forgotten,” Ali said, adding that this initiative will be overseen by trusted and respected religious and civil society people drawn from across Ghana.
He said Carl Stewart will lead it and that Guyana “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 a temple or whispered in a mosque”. “We will offer the 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, adding that he has asked Iman Harrison Courtenay of Belize to assist in working out the modalities relating to financial assistance for the survivors and the victims’ families. Ali said Courtenay brings to this process a wealth of experience as a lawyer, a former minister of foreign affairs and former attorney general, and a former minister of investment and foreign trade of his country.
“I wish to make it clear, this assistance does not constitute compensation for survivors and bereaved families. These measures embody a commitment that every survivor will be supported, every bereaved family will be treated with dignity. “It is in that spirit that I ask every Guyanese to stand together as one people.
Let, therefore, this be our declaration. 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 towards a future.
Forged in kindness, unity and love,” Ali said, indicating that Guyana remains “in the shadow of that dark hour”. “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, and that we will do so not for a fleeting…
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