Twenty-Six Years Under One Sky

On Saturday, September 19, 2026, several hundred members of the Guyanese diaspora gathered in New York for the Health and Educational Relief Organization (H.E.R.O.) awards gala. The theme was “A Starry Night of Hope, Service, and Impact: Healing Under One Sky.” The evening celebrated H.E.R.O.’s work, but it was also twice an occasion of remembrance.

Two Acts of Remembrance

The first came before any award was given. This was H.E.R.O.’s first gathering since July 18. That night, the ferry MV Barima capsized off the Essequibo Coast with some 179 people aboard. It was sailing from Georgetown to Port Kaituma. More than seventy lives were lost, and dozens more were never found. Indeed, it is among the worst maritime disasters in Guyana’s history. The mistress of ceremonies, Dr. Rose October Edun, asked the room to bow its head. Then a ballroom full of doctors, nurses and teachers kept silent for those we lost. These are people who have given their working lives to the care of others.

The second remembrance stood on an easel beside the podium. It was a portrait of Dr. Collie Oudkerk (October 31, 1966 – August 9, 2024), described there as “Physician and Humanitarian.” Dr. Oudkerk co-founded H.E.R.O. in January 2000 in Tallahassee, Florida, and led its first mission that December. A Guyanese physician at Brookdale Hospital in Brooklyn, he brought teams home several times a year. Those teams even reached communities as remote as Matthews Ridge and Baramita. Both lie in the same northwest district the Barima was sailing toward.

The most affecting moment of the night came from his young son Kai. He stood in a bright yellow suit with a handwritten page in one hand. Beside him, a woman in an evening gown bent to steady the microphone. He told the room that he lost his father at five. He said his father helped many people in Guyana.

Where H.E.R.O. Began

I should declare an interest. Dr. Wayne Sampson, H.E.R.O.’s other co-founder, and I were undergraduates together at Brooklyn College. We were both members of the National Black Science Students Organization (NBSSO). This campus group brought together young Black people from the United States, the Caribbean, and the African diaspora. All of us intended to make careers in science and medicine. We also asked one another what those careers would be. Wayne later went on to Howard University and to internal medicine at an inner-city clinic in Tallahassee. I, meanwhile, went into mathematics. History will record that I played a small part in the early conversations that led to H.E.R.O. Twenty-six years later, I watched Wayne present an award named for his late co-founder. It reminded me that institutions often begin in student clubs, among friends who take each other’s ambitions seriously.

The Work on the Ground

Three short films, screened before dinner, showed what the organization does. First, a four-week summer program in literacy and numeracy serves children performing below grade level. It offers diagnostic assessments, small-group instruction, a daily meal, and a graduation with book bags for the new school year. As a result, some students reach grade level, and local teachers have asked for the curriculum. Second, the medical team worked around Linden this year, including Ituni, and along the East Coast of Demerara. Its emphasis was on prevention. Finally, the surgical team operates alongside Guyanese colleagues on hernias, gallbladder disease, and congenital and orthopedic conditions. It also builds mentorship into every mission.

The organization’s continuity stood out to me. Volunteers are encouraged to finish their training, and many return as practicing professionals. In this way, H.E.R.O. does more than replenish its volunteer pool. In short, it reproduces itself.

The Honourees

Saturday night honored some of the people who have kept that cycle going. Dr. Adil Khair, a breast surgeon born and raised in India, has served on the missions for seven years. Dr. John Mitchell introduced him, and he described a journey into Guyana’s interior as one of the most exciting trips of his life. Also honored was Dr. Rory Lewis, a Georgetown-born orthopedic surgeon and U.S. Army veteran, now in Dayton, Ohio. His friend Dr. Ron Chase introduced him as a man who had finally come home to serve.

Claire Chenine is a nurse practitioner who began on the missions as a nurse. Her presenter, Dr. Barinthia King, praised her quiet and unwavering compassion. Finally, Denise Mitchell received the Dr. Collie Oudkerk Legacy Award from Dr. Sampson. She chairs the fundraising committee for the annual breakfast. She accepted the award on behalf of her whole team. Each honouree also received citations from Congressman Gregory W. Meeks and the New York City Council.

Passing the Torch

The award that stayed with me was the Torch Award, given to Alyssa Goldman. She joined H.E.R.O. as an undergraduate at Florida A&M and taught for several years. Today, she is a student at Ross University School of Medicine, where she has founded a H.E.R.O. student chapter. The award recognizes her for carrying the work forward to the next generation.

Guyana is now measured by barrels of oil per day. H.E.R.O., however, measures something else: a child who reads at grade level, a repaired hernia, a woman screened in time. For a quarter century, Guyanese abroad have sustained this work through volunteering and through fundraising. As Dr. Sampson told the room, fundraising is the organization’s lifeblood.

The Torch Award made me think of where H.E.R.O. began. A student joins a mission, finishes her training, returns as a professional, and starts a chapter so that others can follow. That is the path Wayne and I began at Brooklyn College. There, a student organization taught us that talent carries an obligation, and that sometimes the obligation points home. In a ballroom under H.E.R.O.’s one sky, we saw what happens when young people take that lesson seriously. We also saw what happens when they keep taking it seriously for a lifetime. Somewhere in Georgetown, Linden, or Brooklyn, young people are having those conversations now.

---

Dr. Terrence Richard Blackman is the Founder and Publisher of the Guyana Business Journal. To learn more about H.E.R.O. or to support its missions, visit heroglobal.org.