Pres. Ali announces HEART Initiative to mobilise financial & other support for those affected by MV Barima tragedy 

See full statement from President Dr Irfaan Ali:

We are still in the shadow of that dark hour when the sea claimed the lives of so many of our loved ones who were on board the M.V. Barima.

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 moment, not until the headlines fade, but throughout the long, tender journey of healing that stretches far beyond this period of immediate grief.

We do not offer this extended and sustained hand of support out of duty alone.  Our concern is not contrived.  It is a part of who and what we are as a nation. We have always been a people who understand that grief is not a solitary road—it is a path we walk together, shoulder to shoulder.

And let no one mistake this for compensation. Grief cannot be balanced by any ledger. This is support born out of the refusal to let anyone walk through their sorrow alone. This is solidarity, that unbreakable thread that binds us, one to another, in our common humanity.

We are a people who, when darkness descends, light lamps for one another. We are the descendants of ancestors, who knew suffering and still chose solidarity; who understood that to lift another is to lift oneself.

Our values are etched in our motto One People, One Nation, One Destiny—bound by the unshakable belief that every life is precious, every loss is shared, and every survivor deserves a nation that remembers.

Therefore, to ensure that this support—material, moral, and spiritual—is sustained, I am establishing a national body to coordinate, mobilize, and foster this necessary work of healing.

It shall be known as the H.E.A.R.T. INITIATIVE — Hope, Empathy, Aid, Resilience, and Trust.

– Hope for the grieving,

– Empathy for the broken,

– Aid for the hurting,

– Resilience for the journey ahead,

– Trust that they will never be forgotten.

This Initiative will be overseen by trusted and respected religious and civil society persons, drawn from across Guyana, led by Mr. Carl Stewart. They 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 the temple, or whispered in the mosque. They will offer practical hands of service and provide a safety net of support and compassion that no family affected by this tragedy will slip through.

I also wish to announce that I have asked Mr Eamon Harrison Courtenay of Belize to assist in working out the modalities relating to financial assistance for the survivors and the victims’ families. Mr Courtenay brings to this process a wealth of experience as a practitioner of law and as a former Minister of Foreign Affairs and former Attorney General and Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade of his country. I wish to make it clear that 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 are Guyana. We do not abandon our own. 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 toward a future forged in kindness, unity, and love.