Plaintain chips business helps single mother raise Doctor, Soldier, Environmental Officer
For the past five years, Verna Hercules has been trekking the community of Kwakwani on the western bank of the Berbice River where she sells plantain chips, seasonings, icicles, mithai and mangoes –a job she has grown to love.
The 50-year-old woman was placed in a precarious position five years ago, as her four children, who had all completed their Secondary education, pleaded with her for assistance to further their education.
“They were asking me permission to go and further their studies but I was saying that I cannot really make it because of the money,” the woman told the News Room recently at the Kwakwani Empowerment Centre.
Verna separated from her husband ten years prior and moved to the community of Kwakwani.
The community – home to approximately four thousand people – does not have a tertiary educational facility.
“In Kwakwani, there isn’t anything much going on. You see more pregnancy and those sort of things going on,” she noted.
As such, Verna agreed that her two daughters and two sons needed to look further afield to make something of themselves.
One morning, she decided to start selling her major commodity – plantain chips.
