By Theresa Goodwin
Help is on the way for a pregnant mother-of-four who has been living with her young children in the ruins of a burnt-out house in the Point and Villa area.
The Adopt a Family group that runs the government’s Home Advancement Programme for the Indigent (HAPI) is currently working to provide a permanent home for the unemployed woman who moved her family into the fire-ravaged property in the absence of anywhere else to go.
The woman’s plight was made public by the non-profit group Helping Hands Girls Club, which has been seeking donations for her.
Group founder Rhonda Spencer used her Facebook page last week to highlight the woman’s situation and appeal to the authorities for help in relocating her in time for Christmas as her living conditions are unsuitable and unhealthy for her and her offspring.
Adopt a Family founder and HAPI coordinator, Police Inspector Veldon Ragguette, said his team had tried without success to contact the owner of the burnt property to discuss the possibility of a lease arrangement so that the house could be repaired.
He said they reached out to Prime Minister Gaston Browne who helped identify a piece of land that has now been cleared to facilitate the construction of a new home for the family.
“We cleared the land already and we are now waiting on the backhoe to come and dig out the foundation, and once that is done it will be full speed ahead,” Ragguette said.
He said they are trying to find alternative arrangements for the woman and her children until the construction process is completed.
The senior officer added that the group is elated to see members of the community coming together to assist the woman and her family, and encouraged more civic and community spirit over the holidays.