Motherless and poverty-stricken, she cooks a full meal each day, cleans, and does all the washing for her two brothers and father. At night, a makeshift hammock made from portions of fishing net was her bed. It kept her feet dry when the battered and grimy one-room shack, (in which she lived for several years), was flooded by the salty waves that came crashing over the seawalls bordering the Atlantic. Priya’s shack was held together by bits of rotting wood, clothing and aluminum zinc sheets. There was no floor, and often the mattress on which her father and brother slept was drenched as a result of constant flooding.

Our encounter with Priya is what started it all. An earnest desire to intervene and change this tragic situation is what birthed HOPE Guyana. Priya’s home was the first project constructed by HOPE. It was her story; her situation, that inspired and fueled our passion to help those that are trapped in the cycle of poverty.