Family still homeless

WHILE an East Dry River woman remains living under a tree near the ruins of her home which collapsed on Carnival Tuesday, hope springs alive for her and her homeless family, after several organisations have come forward to offer assistance, after reading the story in Newsday. Marlene Andrews still sleeps under the tree with one of her elder children while her four other younger children have found safer temporary accommodation.

In an interview yesterday, Andrews said she received offers from the Social Welfare Services, Mother Nature and Angostura. She said despite this, she remains concerned that no one from the NHA or the Government has paid a visit to her family to offer assistance or even “their prayers.” “I feeling like they don’t really care about me and my children, because look at how I sleeping on the ground and they haven’t even come to find out if I am okay. Not even the representative for my area has paid me a visit,” Andrews said.

The offer of assistance came in the wake of a story published in Newsday on February 15. And while there have been no final decisions on these offers, the family believes something positive would come out of the experience. Andrews said several offers were made but she was concerned by the short-term possibilities the offers represented. She added that in the midst of all that was happening, she hoped to get a permanent job to maintain herself, her children and deal with monthly living expenses.