Father, twin daughters offer to build house

Help is pouring in for a South Oropouche family who have been forced to live in their car after being evicted last week.

A father and his two daughters have come forward promising to construct an entire house for Dave Nagoo, his wife Indira and their three young daughters.

Riaz Khan, 37, and his twin daughters of Lothian Road, Princes Town were moved to tears when they read in the Sunday Newsday of the family’s plight in which Nagoo, 38, related how his family slept in their old Nissan March car. With his three children, ages seven to ten and 27-year-old wife, they parked their car close to the Quinam Beach, just off Penal; at Cushe Village, Biche; and at Kings Wharf, San Fernando, where they slept because they had nowhere else to go.

Nagoo is engaged in a land dispute with a relative over property where he claimed he was born and lived until things took a turn for the worse last week Wednesday. The relative served Nagoo with a restraining order from the Siparia Magistrates Court. As a result, Nagoo was debarred from going within 100 metres of the house in which his family lived.

Nagoo recalled that when he was 13-years-old, his mother and father divorced. At 16, he said, his sisters went to live with their mother while he and his five brothers remained at the house.

He said as time went on, his elder brothers moved out and he lost touch with them. He told Newsday about growing up alone and earning a livelihood from gardening. People in the village, he said, helped provide food and clothing, but tragedy struck earlier this year when the house was destroyed by fire. He was able to rebuild with assistance from several State agencies which supplied building materials. Nagoo said his troubles started when the house was completed and he began to live comfortably again with his family. In June, he said, a relative moved back into the house. “Is then trouble start,” Nagoo said.

Nagoo moved his family to live in, what he described as, a garden house. At night, he slept in the car on the road.

He said he started selling fish at Kings Wharf, but recently he received a telephone call and he hurried home to find the garden house demolished. Last Wednesday, a police officer served Nagoo with the restraining order and he was forced to take his family in his car and leave the village.

On Saturday night, Nagoo slept in his car while Indira and the children spent the night at her mother’s home in South Oropouche. Indira said yesterday, several people visited them and brought foodstuff and clothing. “A lot of people calling and saying they want to come today and bring things for us. We are grateful. Then a Mr Khan called from Princes Town called and said he coming tomorrow and if we have a piece of land, he will build a house for us,” Indira said.

Nagoo was not at home yesterday, Indira said, because he he got a “day work” to paint tombstones at a cemetery.

Newsday contacted Khan and he said he and his 10-year-old daughters Mariah and Mayah read about the family’s plight. “Mariah brought the papers to me and said ‘daddy you see this. Let we bring them home.’” Mariah was pointing to the photograph of Nagoo’s three daughters, who demonstrated how they slept on a sponge in the back seat of their father’s car. Khan said his daughter Mayah was also distraught and wished he (Khan) could bring the girls to their home.

Khan, an offshore worker, said he told his daughters he would first visit the family and then take his daughters to see Nagoo’s daughters. Khan said after he spoke with Indira on the telephone yesterday, he made her a promise on behalf of Mariah and Mayah. He said based on the predicament which Indira described, he told her he and his daughters have decided to build them a home.

Khan said he will send a builder tomorrow to South Oropouche because Indira told him her mother consented to her occupying a small plot of land next to her house. Khan said, “The builder will go in and do the measurements. I discussed with my daughters that we will build them a three-bedroom house. Since they have three daughters, they need to have toilets and bath upstairs and a small porch.”

Khan said his daughters who are pupils of Grant Memorial Presbyterian Primary School in San Fernando, are very elated about the house and they have even made sketches of what the family’s living room should look like.

Khan said he has already spoken with a few friends who have agreed to provide the family with appliances and furniture. He said, “I’m not rich. I’m doing this because I also have daughters and, like any father, I love them.”