South AIDS clinic coming

SAN Fernando West MP and Junior Trade Minister Diane Seukeran last Thursday said an AIDS Clinic to service the southland may well be on the way sometime in the future. Seukeran made the disclosure moments after she handed over keys to new homes for two impoverished families in Embacadere.

Seukeran said the site for the AIDS clinic would be on the compound of San Fernando General Hospital. The MP said she held discussions with the wife of  Dr Austin Trinidade, Medical Chief of Staff, regarding the Clinic. Seukeran declined to state when construction would start. Seukeran said she would seek the assistance of Kenneth Ferguson, Managing Director of Kenson Group of Companies, in the actual building of the clinic. She noted that  the South should have such a facility of its own. After speaking to Sunday Newsday on the AIDS clinic, she mingled with the two families who were recipients of two newly built houses, courtesy MP Seukeran and Ferguson, whose Company undertook the responsibility for the construction of the homes.

MP Seukeran put smiles on the faces of the members of two impoverished families at Circular Road, Embacadere when she handed over to them the keys to their new homes. One of the recipients of the new homes was the family of baby Shelly Ann Sahadeo, who in March last year drowned in a pigtail bucket. Both Rajdeo Sahadeo, 36, and Gita Ramjit, 32, parents of baby Shelly were elated to receive the three-bedroom home, which they would be sharing with their six children. Since their daughter’s tragic death, they have had one new addition to the family, Sindelle, who is two months old. Construction of the home started almost immediately after baby Shelly died. Both parents said they still thought of her.

Describing his struggles to come to terms with his daughter’s death, Sahadeo said, “It is hard and frustrating.”  The couple, both of whom are currently unemployed said that they were “very happy” for the new home and expressed “special thanks” to Minister Seukeran. A few houses away, the other beneficiary Lutchmie Jaitoon, 60, also wore a smile on her face as she looked at her new home. Construction at her now-completed concrete two-bedroom home started early this year. She would be sharing the house with her son Arnold Anthony, 22. Speaking to Sunday Newsday, the woman said though the new home made her happy, she still gets sad whenever she reminisces about her past struggles to make ends meet. Jaitoon said that prior to having the house built, she lived under the home of her brother. “I didn’t think I was getting a home.”

Also at the presentation was Seukaran’s Campaign Manager, Ian Atherly, and Managing Director of Kenson Production Services Limited — Kenneth Ferguson — whose company also aided in the construction of the two houses at a cost of $100,000. Minister Seukeran, who is also the Junior Trade Minister, said she hoped that in the near future other residents of the area would be able to have a decent level of housing.