FEATURE
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SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2021 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM
Patricia Punch shares her journey of following her passion By Lakhram Bhagirat
F
of race, colour, or religious affiliation. To further strengthen this mission’s vision on the way forward, we have incorporated a new entity called The Humanitarian Mission-
amous American comedian Wanda Sykes once said: “If you feel like there’s something out there that you’re supposed to be doing, The Humanitarian Mission-Guyana Inc if you have a passion for it, then stop wishing and just do it.” That is exactly what Patricia Punch has been doing for the past three years. The 41-yearold mother of three has been continuously working on self-improvement and following her passion. Hailing from Rose Hall Town in East Berbice, Punch has always had a passion for baking and Guyana Inc which is a tax-excake decorating. However, empt, non-profit, educational, she never found the avenue social, and charitable organito follow her passion up until zation. This entity is secular 2018 when she came into con- with no religious affiliation tact with the Humanitarian and would make it easier for Mission-Guyana Inc which everyone in the community to was offering baking and cake seek much-needed help and decorating classes. get funding from agencies,” The Humanitarian the organisation says on its Mission-Guyana Inc is an ed- Facebook page. ucational, social and charThrough the itable Non-Governmental Humanitarian MissionOrganisation (NGO) with Guyana Inc, Punch has been its pain purpose being to able to move from being a "Educate, Empower and student to the teacher of the Elevate". four-month baking and cake The Humanitarian decorating course – a feat she Mission of NJAS Inc was initi- thought she would never be ated in 2005 under the auspic- able to accomplish. es of New Jersey Arya Samaj She had a regular job up Mandir Inc, with the sole pur- until she got pregnant with pose of serving humanity and her third child and stopped helping the underprivileged working. However, always to break the vicious cycle of wanting to be earning and poverty through education aid in providing for her chiland empowerment in Guyana. dren led Punch to start folSince its formation, the organ- lowing her passion for food. isation has been able, through At first, she started prepardonor funding, to build a fully ing hot meals and would vend functional training centre in at the bus shed in front of the Port Mourant, Berbice. University of Guyana’s Tain The facility is being used Campus. for imparting vocational Then in 2018, via a training and education to the WhatsApp group chat, she community to help break the came across a flier from the cycle of poverty. Humanitarian Mission about “It has been our mission its plethora of classes being to serve everyone, regardless offered.
“I got word about the mission from a WhatsApp group and I went there and visit. I had a passion for cakes. I can bake nice cakes but I always wanting to do the icing. I have
3 kids so I was always investing in buying birthday cakes and so I wanted to learn about how I can do it myself. So I went there and I signed up to
learn. At first, I was scared lil bit but then I got more comfortable as the course went on. I am now grateful for everything I learned,” she said. There she was taught the principles of pastry making, the different types of pastries after which she moved on to the baking aspect of the course. She learned to bake all types of cake and moved on to decorating them. “I learned to icing cake and prepare pastries and all of these finger foods but I wasn’t satisfied at first with the skills I had. So I went back again in 2019, I did another four months and from that, I did well. I loved it all. I loved being able to learn about all these new things and for once I felt happy to be pursuing my passion. From then, I knew that I only had to keep building myself up.” Being impressed by her commitment and dedication
towards self-improvement led the administrators of the learning centre to ask Punch if she could expand her role from being a student to a teacher. “They asked me if I could teach the class after then and I consider it my honour to do that and now I am teaching there. They are doing a very good job there but they need some support because it is a non-profit organisation and being that they are doing the
Cake decorating in motion
training for mostly young women, stay-at-home moms and single mothers who want to empower themselves so we would need like some support and so for whatever it is so we can help provide for the ladies. She started teaching in January of 2020 but had to cancel classes after the coronavirus pandemic hit, but she is now back in the classroom imparting the knowledge she gained.
