Takeisha's back home from British Virgin Islands

Takeisha Clairmont
Takeisha Clairmont

TAKEISHA Clairmont, a diabetic mother, who was stuck in the British Virgin Islands for several months, is back home in Trinidad and in quarantine at the Home of Football in Couva.

Clairmont took a Caribbean Airlines flight to Piarco from Barbados on Sunday.

She was initially expected to stay in Barbados until September 23 to take a charter flight. However, she got on to a CAL flight, saving a considerable amount.

Sheena Millet, a Trinidadian woman living abroad, who led a fundraising drive to get Clairmont back home, told Newsday they did everything they could to get her on Sunday's flight. Millet also said the beneficiary of the funds, Carol Miranda, has made a final transfer of the remaining funds, totalling US$1,492, to Clairmont's account on Tuesday.

Millet said everyone who contributed to the fundraiser, which was hosted on gofundme.com, was updated on its progress via e-mail. She said they might have been short of funds had Clairmont needed to take the charter flight.

The fundraiser also helped another couple trying to get home, contributing to their plane tickets.

The couple arrived in TT on Sunday and are also in quarantine. In good timing, too, Millet said. One of them is a woman who is 28 weeks pregnant, and, as Millet stressed, was desperate to get back home.

"In the end, things worked out better than ever expected," she said, adding that the money is likely to go toward medical care.

Newsday raised Clairmont's plight to get home to her children last month. She had been stuck in the BVI for months after going to visit her brother at the end of January. She had not seen him for six years, and it was her first trip overseas. She was scheduled to return home on March 24 – two days after TT's borders were closed.

Clairmont was three months pregnant at the time but miscarried in the BVI. During her prolonged stay there, she was hit with extensive medical bills and had trouble finding a place to stay.

Clairmont was finally given an exemption to return home last month. She is reportedly scheduled to leave the quarantine facility on Saturday morning.

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"Takeisha’s back home from British Virgin Islands"

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