Amputee to receive first NIS pension at end of April
—After visiting NIS booth at ‘Gov’t comes to you’ outreach in Berbice
DPI, Guyana, Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Leroy Rose who lives in Port Mourant on the Corentyne has been challenged with obtaining his old-age pension from the National Insurance Scheme. However, after visiting the NIS’s booth at the government outreach in East Berbice, the senior citizen will be able to access his first tranche of pension by the end of April.
Leroy Rose at the NIS booth as he is being processee of being approved for his pension
This was noted after he would have experienced delays in positive responses in his application for a pension which was submitted since December 2018. Rose noted that after celebrating his 60th birth anniversary he has made several efforts in accessing his old age pension from NIS in Berbice and Georgetown. He served as a Security Officer of the Guyana Sugar Corporation in Berbice from the age of sixteen until the date of the incident which caused him to lose a leg.
“I feel so happy that I came here today, why I am happy is because all the doubts were cleared up and they told me by next week or so I should check with them, after the holiday and I will be grateful for that because I will depend on that my children live overseas but this is what I will be depending on.” He explained.
Rose had to have his leg severed after a cow went berserk and its horn protruded it damaging all the arteries. This incident happened in November 2017. The former GuySuCo employee explained how it happened.
“I left my job to go home and return, while I was home my neighbour asked me to lend him a length of rope because we are both cattle farmers so I took the rope across to him and in the process of carrying this rope across a little boy threw a rope on a wild cow and the cow started attacking me. The cow plunged into my back, the horn passed through my leg and it ripped all the arteries… Also, the bone broke above the knee and below the knee. The doctors at Georgetown Hospital tried their best but couldn’t save the foot because the bones were crumbled.”
Since then, Rose has been back and forth with the police department in the region to seek justice for the life-changing accident. “The owner for the cow migrated, he called me and threatened me asking why I had to go to the police but it didn’t move me…It’s not a small piece of my body missing, I don’t have a knee, I don’t have an ankle, I don’t have a foot.”
He has noted that his major source of support was a pension from GuySuCo after he was no longer able to work. Now, being able to obtain a pension from NIS means he will be able to take care of himself more efficiently since he has not been able to reap benefits from the owner of the cow who still has not settled the matter.
Delicia Haynes
Image: Marceano Naraine