A family’s life of hell in a tent

Arnaud and her family have been exposed to rain and wind, having been evicted from their apartment on June 14 on St Joseph Street, San Fernando. When this happen, Arnaud had no where to take her family.

A neighbour gave Arnaud a tarpaulin which she immediately pitched at the end of the street. She crammed all her worldly possessions inside the tent and has been living there since.

Newsday caught up with Arnaud, who explained her heart-rending story. Arnaud said, “I cannot take it any more… please come with me…I have no one else to turn to.” Arnaud’s daughter Salome, was asleep while sitting on a chair and clutching her baby – Weiling. Black garbage bags were tied and pinned at the side of the tent to keep out the rain and wind. Clothes and utensils were strewn on the ground which was covered with grass and wells of soft, slushy, mud. Pushing the tarpaulin upwards as she stood up, Arnaud said, “Imagine this is what I have come to… I have nothing.”

Arnaud said she was forced to leave her restaurant job. The family, she said, had not eaten a home-cook meal since they were evicted from their apartment.

Arnaud said that two weeks ago, son Joshua swallowed some tablets while playing at the home of a neighbour. Up to yesterday (Friday), he was warded in a critical condition at the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH).

He was simply playing around the tent, she said, bored over living under a tent. “He wandered somewhere and saw the tablets in a bottle. Believing they were sweetie, Joshua swallowed them,” the mother said.

Arnaud said she has no idea how long she would continue living under the tent. She is fearful for her daughter and her newborn. “I’m begging for someone to help me,” Arnaud said.