Three Rivers Kids Foundation

Affording a new life for Guyanese children

he Three Rivers Kids Foundation was founded in 2005 to help give a new phase of life to children stricken with heart problems and other medical issues.
It is a registered charitable organization in Ontario, Canada. The goal of this organisation is to help sick children in Guyana whose parents are too poor to afford medical care. The organisation covers the medical treatment for children who need to be brought overseas.
In an interview with Guyana Times Sunday Magazine, president of the foundation Jeanette Singh noted that there are hundreds of sick and poor children in Guyana who are in desperate need of medical help. She added that the country does not have any pediatric cardiac surgeons, and lacks many medical specialists and facilities. These children have to be taken overseas for treatment. Singh revealed that most of these children suffer from life threatening conditions and would not survive if they do not receive the proper medical care.
The foundation, she noted, has no overhead costs such as office rent, utility bills, or salaries. All the board members are unpaid volunteers. Every dollar that is donated goes directly to helping the children. This foundation supplies medications to children from Guyana on a regular basis. It also supplies wheelchairs, commodes, prescription eye glasses, and hearing aids. In 2008, the foundation was registered as a non-governmental organisation in Guyana.
From tragedy to a worthy cause
The story of how the foundation started is a poignant one. Singh explained that she and her family left Guyana when she was very young. In the 1980s, her parents decided to come return to Guyana, and that was when they were attacked by robbers in their home resulting in the tragic, brutal death of her father. Singh returned to Guyana for the funeral and went looking for a school friend, a schoolteacher. Singh met with her friend and saw the many children she was teaching. The children were less fortunate and her friend decided she would take them in the afternoons to tutor them. Moved by her friend’s philanthropy work, Singh told her friend she would help to support those children.
“I went back to Canada, and my husband and I supported those children, but then the needs of those children grew. One was knocked down and needed a wheelchair and so on. As the demands grew I saw the need to start this foundation. In 2005, I decided to formally open the foundation, but my charitable work began since in the 1980s. It initially operated in Canada, and later on we opened an office here (Guyana) so that it would be more convenient for parents to reach out to us. Having a medical background – being a registered nurse for many years in England and Canada, I realized we don’t have many specialists here in pediatric cardiology or any pediatric cardiac surgeons, and there were a ton of children with congenital heart disease who were not being treated. In 2005, I had a list of children and I started investigating India because it is really expensive for heart surgeries to be done in Canada. I found out it was cheaper for them to be done in India and we took our first batch of children to India in 2005,” Singh stated.
Successes and concerns

To date, the foundation has helped more than 100 children from Guyana. Singh disclosed they have cleared their backlog of high-priority cases and are now focused on other pending cases. Last year, 17 patients: 15 children and two adults were, in mid-February, flown to Max Hospital, in Delhi, India for much-needed medical treatment.  This group was the largest the foundation has ever taken charge of.  Singh revealed that the next batch would be going to India for much needed surgery in February, 2013.
Her fear and concern is locating children with heart conditions too late, because parents don’t reach out early for medical attention, causing surgery to be detrimental. She said these cases are supposed to be treated in the first six months or year of diagnosis. Observing the need for early detection, the foundation conducts free cardio-screening clinics done by Dr. Viresh Mahajan, pediatric cardiologist from India. This, Singh said, reduces time-wastage and money.
“Another issue is that some parents are not trying to understand the severity of their children’s heart conditions. They feel they will grow out of it, which is crazy thinking. This is frustrating because these parents don’t understand the seriousness of their children’s state or that they will become inoperable, which will ultimately affect the parents’ lives. They don’t see beyond the present. We keep pleading to these ones to get their children checked out early. Finance is not an issue because we fully cover the children’s expenses. The foundation has dealt and can deal with medical conditions not treated in Guyana,” an aggrieved Singh disclosed.
Personal satisfaction
Singh is a fulltime nurse at a medical institution in Canada, and she has a family, while serving as president of the foundation. When asked how she does it all, she said her motivation comes from seeing the joy on the children’s faces after they have undergone surgery.
“There’s an emotional attachment and that’s a significant feeling. I get a good feeling to know we can give them a new lease on life. Currently, one of our patients is getting married and another will be going to UG very soon. Moments like these keep me going. Three Rivers Kids Foundation is also very grateful to the executives of Gandhi Youth Organization for giving the foundation free office space and we thank them sincerely,” Singh expressed appreciatively.
Visit www.threeriverskidsfoundation.org for more information on the organisation. (Taken from Guyana Times Sunday Magazine)