Know Your Bajans: Aunty Olga...may she R.I.P.

Dame Olga Lopes-Seale: Auntie of 2000 needy children on the Isle of Barbados

What is the greatest responsibility of mankind in each existing generation? The answer is simple. It is to take care of the future our children – our future. Taking this responsibility very seriously is Barbadian children’s activist Olga Lopes-Seale. Olga was born in Guyana, a country in the southern Caribbean. She later migrated to Barbados in the early 1960s. She was often referred to as Auntie Olga and this was the name given to her by the thousands of children she helped and was considered the Mother Theresa of Barbados and local pioneer for the poor.

Needy Children’s Fund

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The Needy Children’s Fund evolved from a mere outreach to the corporate community in Guyana to donate children’s clothing to an established NGO working to assist all underprivileged children.

Olga’s efforts began in her birth country over 40 years ago and continued on her journey to Barbados. The Needy Children’s Fund began by simply appealing for clothing for five boys who were unable to attend a Christmas party because they didn’t have any clothes. The appeal for clothing ended up in a large pile of donated clothes so she then made an appeal for needy children to come and benefit from the donation. Before she left Guyana back in the early 1960s she was helping over 1500 poor Guyanese children.

The Barbados Chapter 

On her arrival to Barbados, Olga continued the work of assisting underprivileged children. The Needy Fund’s Fund of Barbados was launched for all the less fortunate children on the island and those who suffered from mental and physical disabilities. Olga used her post as a local radio broadcaster to reach out to all the corporate companies in Barbados to offer monetary and any other form of help which would be used to assist the children in need. Her kind soft spoken demeanor warmed the hearts of many. She would always receive positive responses from the companies she approached and was never denied help. Olga also worked relentlessly with many local organizations to assist with donations and fundraising events to for the children.

Community Outreach

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Olga attended to each child individually. She would make trips to rural and urban neighborhoods to visit those families who requested help. These families would range from single parent families with only a mother or father who could not provide for all the needs of the children in that house to other families which included stay at home mothers struggling to support her family and living without a spouse due to the tragedy of death or abandonment. She would investigate each situation and assess the needs of the children and no child was ever turned away.

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She hand-delivered donations including food items, vouchers for school supplies and clothing to each home in her personal car. The many journeys she took to deliver donations resulted in car accidents on three occasions but she remained committed to service.

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When the Fund first started in Barbados there were only a few children on the list for assistance but as the years rolled on the list reached into the hundreds and then stretched into the thousands. To date, the fund has helped almost 2000 needy children across the eleven parishes of Barbados.

There was a family with six children who lived in a little house in the north of the island with no water or electricity and one small income to support the family. Guess who was the first to offer help? Olga visited their home and sought donations to help them. She brought clothes for all the children who were five boys and one girl, shoes, clothes and supplies for school. She also helped to get running water and electricity in the house. Food supplies were also donated. They parents were able to send the children to school with clean clothes and provide meals everyday. 

Rosalind Holder a single mother of four, declared with great appreciation that Olga’s help made a major impact on her children’s lives.

“When times were hard Olga made it possible for my children to go to school by giving vouchers for school uniforms and gave them clothes to wear. She was a good woman who looked out for everybody. She loved the children and always gave them treats. She a very generous woman,” Rosalind says.

The vision of the Needy Children’s Fund was to ensure that each child was able to get an education by attending school. Olga would seek monetary donations from corporate companies or other well-to-do figures in society. The parents or guardians of each child would be given vouchers for school clothes, books and shoes every school term. Olga would then take the money she received and pay the relevant department stores for the items. Her personal assistant Ena Jordan said, “Auntie Olga loved the kids and mothers very much. She was very determined and very professional in dealing with all the families and she loved the cause. She was a very gentle and humble person.”

Special Needs 

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The Children’s Fund extended its efforts into many institutions which housed children with physical defects. Wheelchairs were donated for children who unable to move around on their own and special events were held to assist those who required costly medical procedures.

Each year Olga hosted a Christmas party for all the needy children whom she helped throughout the year. The children would receive gifts from Santa Claus and were treated to lunch and special treats. Dame Olga was often heard saying in her in her soft spoken voice, “there is nothing better to see a child happy and smiling for Christmas.

Children under the Fund also received toys and other gifts on birthdays. Olga also raised money for the Needy Children’s fund through an Annual Fun Run. The 10K Fun Run is sponsored every year by a local entertainment company and has raised thousands of dollars towards helping the underprivileged children of the nation.  To date the Fund has helped almost 2000 needy children.

Care for the Elderly

“Even though my people are poor they should be treat the right way,” Olga believed that the underprivileged were the most important people in society including the elderly. As the charity grew over the years, Olga recognized the need to assist the Elderly in the society including senior citizens who lived alone with no one to care for them on a daily basis.  Olga would visit them in their homes and offer assistance with eye glasses, help in improving the living conditions and also donated free wheelchairs to aid in their mobility. Elderly people living in geriatric institutions also received assistance from the fund in the form on clothing and gifts.

The Journey Continues 

Dame Lopes Seale has indeed recognized the need to protect and care for our children and devoted her life and work to ensure that they grow to be strong men and women who will be the future leaders of the nation. Her community assistance programs and dedication to giving to others is the perfect example of a selfless humanitarian who recognized the value of a sustainable and learning environment for children in need. She was awarded the knights honor (In 2005, she was made a 2005 Dame of St. Andrew) for her charitable work and activism for women and continued in this vein up until her recent death on February 4, this year. Her work is now being carried on by the Variety Club of Barbados.

Phoo Courtesy: Dawn Lisa Callender-Smith

Olga’s favorite song which became her lifelong motto was

“If I can help somebody as I pass along,
If I can cheer somebody with a word or song,
If I can show somebody who is traveling wrong,
Then my living shall not be in vain.”

Sourced