HGP Nightly News – More than a month after the MV Barima claimed two of their children, Leroy and Eve Jerome say they are still waiting for promised help, and for the vessel to be raised so they can bring their 12-year-old daughter home, even if only her bones remain.
“They buss we off,” Leroy said, describing what he believes has been the government’s treatment of his grieving family.
The couple shared their experience during an engagement with Member of Parliament Sherod Duncan in Mabaruma.
Their two-year-eight-month-old son, Jacob Jerome, and 12-year-old daughter, Alliya Gonsalves, were aboard the MV Barima when it sank on July 18.
Eve survived.
She had travelled to Georgetown with Jacob and Alliya because another of her sons had been hospitalised following an accident. They were returning to Mabaruma when the ferry capsized.
Jacob’s body was recovered, but Alliya remains missing.
Leroy said officials initially assured the family that it would not be forgotten and would receive continuing assistance.
“They promise us they’ll never forget we,” he recalled. “But they forget we quick.”
According to Leroy, contact with government representatives largely stopped after the family returned to Region One.
He said the family was still at Charity when he contacted the Region One Chairman seeking help with fuel expenses for the journey home.
Leroy claimed he was told that approval had to be obtained from elsewhere.
The family ultimately paid its transportation expenses with help from other people.
“If them just decide for buss we off as that or let we down, we still got God to provide,” he said.
Eve said the family received G$350,000 after Jacob’s death. She did not specify in the account provided whether the money was for funeral expenses, emergency assistance or another purpose.
She said officials also promised further financial support relating to Alliya, help with housing and assistance for the seven children still living at home.
According to Eve, those promises have not materialised.
The claims made by the family were not accompanied by correspondence or records documenting the commitments. The government and regional authorities were not quoted responding to the Jeromes’ allegations in the information provided.
Eve also described the physical and psychological effects she continues to experience after surviving the disaster and losing her children.
She said she struggles to eat and repeatedly relives the sinking.
Despite the government’s announcement of counselling and other psychosocial services for affected families, Eve said she had not received sustained counselling since returning to Mabaruma.
The Jeromes also told Duncan they had never heard of the government’s HEART Initiative until he mentioned it during the engagement.
When asked whether representatives of HEART had contacted the family, Eve replied: “No.”
Leroy then asked where the organisation was from.
The government has presented HEART, Hope, Empathy, Aid, Resilience and Trust, as a long-term support mechanism for survivors and bereaved families.
It has said assistance will include social, psychological, medical, legal and material support, with households assessed according to their individual circumstances.
The administration has also announced the EMBRACE online counselling platform and said special attention would be given to families that lost breadwinners and households with children.
The Jeromes’ account, however, raises questions about whether information and services announced nationally are reaching grieving families in remote Region One communities.
Their greatest plea is for the MV Barima to be raised.
Eve said recovering Alliya’s remains, even her bones or clothing, would give the family something to bury and provide a measure of closure.
The government has received expressions of interest from companies seeking to salvage the wreck and is evaluating qualified firms before inviting financial proposals. No contractor or starting date has yet been announced.
Leroy said the family’s complaint was not limited to money. What they wanted, he explained, was evidence that those in authority genuinely cared.
Officials already know where the family lives, he argued, and grieving relatives should not have to chase the government for help they were promised.
“If you care,” Leroy said, “you must show up.”
For now, the family continues mourning Jacob, waiting for Alliya and hoping that the promises made during the first days of the tragedy have not disappeared with the headlines.
