VISHNU BANDHU: A passionate social and community worker
Very few persons are as committed to serving their fellowman as businessman Vishnu Bandhu, who believes that charity begins at home. A social and community worker all his life, he continues to put in his time and money to promote culture, peace, health and goodwill.
Bandhu currently owns a construction company by the name of V.B. New Approach General Construction Inc. in Guyana, but due to his earnest desire to serve others he is the President of the United Federation of Arts and Culture (U.F.A.C), the West Demerara Arya Samaj, the International President of Interstate Sigfa Health Organisation (ISHO) New York and has been recently appointed international co-coordinator of SIGFA Solutions India, Faridabad, (NCR Delhi).
Bandhu was born on December 4, 1951, at Windsor Forest a rice farming village on the West Coast Demerara. He attended the St. Anthony Anglican School. After school he worked as a counter clerk in Georgetown and was an Organising Secretary in the Windsor Forest Arya Samaj (Religious Movement).
He got married in 1971 and joined the Guyana Transport Services Ltd on the West Coast Demerara as a bus driver in the year 1974. In 1975 he organised the first Centenary Foundation Celebration of the Arya Samaj of the West Demerara Region which has grown today to be one of the largest celebrations of the Arya Samaj not only in Guyana but also in the United States of America and Canada.
That same year he migrated to Toronto, Canada. He joined Oscar’s Surplus Company in Toronto as a salesman, and his boss gave him the nick name “JOHN”. After one year of hard work he was promoted as General Manager for Oscar’s Carpet Company in Toronto. Two years later he started his own carpet business called JOHN’S CARPET on Queens Street West, Toronto. The following year he opened JOHNS INTERNATIONAL IMPORT EXPORT and JOHN’S INTERNATIONAL RECORDS COMPANY. He was the President for all these businesses. By this time he had helped to found the Toronto Arya Samaj and in the year 1978 he produced the first long playing Arya Samaj Record (LP) in the world name ATMA SHANTI, meaning “Peace for the Soul” with eight devotional songs.
In 1980 he returned to Guyana and was a member of the central Demerara Lions’ Club. In 1981 he migrated to the United States of America and became a founding member and the first president of the ARYA SAMAJ U.S.A which was for many years the nucleus of Arya Samaj activities in the U.S.
He then later joined a Manufacturing Picture Company in Long Island City, Queens, New York and became one of the first wholesale outdoor salesmen. Six months later he bought over one of the huge furniture stores he used to supply pictures to in Broadway, Brooklyn, N.Y. He then renamed the store EXPO DISTRUBUTOR where he sold furniture, carpet, and pictures and organised shipping to Guyana. Then in the year 1983 he started the first West Indian Cultural News Paper called CARRIBBEAN AWAKE.
After a few months the newspaper turned into a political mouth piece for Guyana. The same year he opened one of the first West Indian Night clubs on Hillside, Queens, New York called CARRIBBEAN CONNECTION. He then started a half hour radio programme and later opened a second furniture store in Jamaica, Queens, N.Y. In 1985, after continuing to hear the cries of the Guyanese people in the then Burnham (PNC) days, Vishnu Bandhu led a team of people to form a Political Party in March, 1985 called UNITED REPUBLICAN PARTY OF GUYANA (in New York) . In May 1986, in the name of the UNITED REPUBLICAN PARTY OF GUYANA he organised the first Guyana Beauty Pageant Cultural Evening at Brooklyn College in New York and also took the party to the first India Day Parade in 1987 in Manhattan, N.Y. where the party had its own UNITED REPUBLICAN PARTY OF GUYANA float, and was the first West Indian organisation to ever take part.
From 1985 to 1987 he and his party executives organised many groups across the United States of America and Toronto, Canada to conduct tremendous ground work, travelling to Washington to meet with members of the US Congress to lobby for restoration of democracy in Guyana. Two years later, in November 1987, the UNITED REPUBLICAN PARTY OF GUYANA was formally launched at 43 Croal Street, Stabroek, and Georgetown, Guyana. Vishnu Bandhu sold his business allowed hi children to stay in the U.S.A. and Canada and went to Guyana to take up residence at Vreed-en-Hoop on the West Coast Demerara, Guyana.
There he lived for another nine years working tirelessly and doing work in the political field. It was not easy – he was locked up many times for political reasons and on one occasion was even shot at, when he was at his residence. In 1989, a soldier vehicle crashed into his vehicle on the West Bank Demerara causing severe injuries to his body, which left him crippled for several months.
In 1990 he opened a business call EXPO MARKETING in Georgetown, Guyana, where he started importing MOLSON BEERS from the United States, sneakers from China and mattresses and food items from Trinidad. In 1993 he opened a Wholesale Retail business called “PEOPLE’S GENERAL STORE” at Vreed-en-Hoop on the West Coast Demerara. The business became very popular. At Christmas time he sponsored Santa Claus and other fun things for kids. During this time he also campaigned in the 1992 General Elections for free and fair elections.
In 1994 for Guyana Independence Day, he organised at the Vreed-en-Hoop Ferry Stelling one of the largest Cultural Evenings ever seen on that side, featuring fireworks by the Army. In the same year he started the construction of the Vreed-en-Hoop Arya Samaj Mandir which took him about 10 years to complete because of finance. He later returned to the United States of America and continued to be an independent individual who financed the completion of the project. Today the Mandir is a masterpiece on the West Coast Demerara. In 1994 he also started the National day of Prayer at the Joe Vera Park on the West Bank Demerara in Guyana. It was led by himself, Dr. Satish Prakash and Prime Minister Samuel Hinds with the help of the police, the army band and thousands of people who marched from the Park to the Vreed-en-Hoop Arya Samaj Mandir which is about three miles away. After that, in 1994, he contested the Best/Klien Pouderoyen Local Government elections where he won a seat. He has promoted various religious and cultural shows in Guyana such as stage shows, cultural fairs, signing competitions, Diwali Beauty Pageants, etc.
With the help of his wife Amelia, Bandhu has also been known to do other activities for the benefit of senior citizens and children. The couple organised government and private vehicles to transport senior citizens from their homes as far as Parika, East Bank Essequibo and Wales, Canal Polder on the West Bank Demerara to Vreed-en-Hoop Ferry Stelling for Christmas Parties and arranged with the army and private companies to prepare meals , entertainment and sharing of gifts. They also furnished and provided an educational programme which includes computers for a Computer School for the Community. In 1996, before returning to United States of America, he coordinated and promoted the Guyana Mashramani celebrations for the government throughout Guyana.
Life is not without setbacks and sometime around this period he returned to the United States of America penniless and he had to start his life all over again. Depressed and frustrated, he had no idea what to do and stayed out of public life. He took a security job, and then he started studies for different types of license – bus, CDL and yellow cab driver’s license. Soon he started driving a yellow cab for a period until he started a construction company called V.N.R. GENERAL CONSTRUCTION COOPERATION. After a few months into the construction company he started an Investment company called GUY AMERICA DEVELOPMENT ENTERPRISES CORP, through which he started borrow money to purchase lands and construct houses. He became the first major developer in the East New York, Brooklyn area and in August 2005 he was featured in the New York Times special article for developing poor neighbourhoods in the Brooklyn Area.
In 2006 he invested in building condominiums in Dominican Republic. After that he became a licensed Realtor and he opened a Real Estate Mortgage Company in Brooklyn. He became the President of the UNITED ARYA SAMAJ FEDERATION which is the mother body of all the ARYA SAMAJ branches in the Tri state Area – New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
In 2008 he formed a company in Guyana call Guy America Investment Inc, Also I.T.S. Energy Services (Guyana) Inc which he is the President, he also has many other Investments in Guyana and at present he controls about 20 Million Dollars in Real Estate Investment.
Currently he is nurturing the principle of Sigfa healing Mantra in his own life and has started Sigfa health education classes. These classes tap into the healing current of God to heal and cure any kind of disease in the body, such as heart disease, blood pressure, Cholesterol, diabetes, Hepatitis-c. Cancer, etc., take place free of cost at a number of locations in Guyana, the principal one being the Vreed-en-hoop Arya Samaj Mandir every Sunday at 3.45 PM.
By Michelle Gonsalves
