State, colleagues provide assistance to Laventille woman after home damaged

THE Laventille woman who had a retaining wall fall on her house on May 18 said she had been assured she would be housed in temporary accommodations by the state for the next three months while a starter home was being built for her.

Debra Woods, 44, said Crystal Edwards, an official from the Disaster Management Unit had taken her somewhere where she would be able to access temporary accommodations in the San Juan area for three months.

“I should be going to sign there tomorrow and hopefully I could move in. She took me to Foundation for the Enhancement & Enrichment of Life (FEEL) and they barely had any donations, so all they could have given me was a bed frame, no mattress, I might get a pillow, probably some wares, a tabletop, but they really don’t have anything else really, no mattress, nothing. I don’t know what going on with the mattress.

“The MP said he hoped they might be able to start to clean the place, I don’t know when. It might take a little while for the wall to build and for a starter house or something so he was telling me. Most people just talk, so I hope it’s real assistance.”

She said she asked Laventille West MP Kareem Marcelle whether she could get an HDC rental but he told her it would cost $1,500-$1,800 month, which was more than she could afford at the time.

“He was saying it might be possible to extend the housing period beyond the first three months. To be honest, I’m glad for the help that after tomorrow I would have somewhere to stay.”

Woods, who works for the Ministry of Culture and Community Development, formerly Sport and Community was visited by the acting permanent secretary and the deputy permanent secretary who brought some funds and items that had been donated by staff, with promises of more to come.

“I’m very grateful for everything I’m getting. Whatever small is a help.”

Meanwhile, one of the owners of the retaining wall, Lee-Ann Baptiste, 36, said her mother Ingrid Kydd had taken the chance to sleep in the house overnight, as the bedroom did not face the slope where the landslide had happened.

“No rain fell yesterday or today. I got a neighbour to help me spread the plastic to send it down the bank to cover the landslide, like the people from the disaster management unit of the regional corporation told me to do. They said it would stop the water wetting the land more to cause more landslides.”

She said they had not heard anything further from the corporation but her mother had been asked to deliver documents to the MP’s office and the San Juan/Laventille regional corporation.

Baptiste said she was unemployed and was hoping to get a nursing job as she was certified in nursing and elder care.

Assistance for those affected by disaster through the Ministry of People, Social Development and Family Services include household items replacement, social welfare grants, temporary food support and counselling and psychosocial support.

Household items include: stove; bed (with mattress); living room set; mattress; dining room set; chest of drawers; washing machine; wardrobe; kitchen cupboard; and refrigerator.

Social welfare grants include up to $10,000 for household items, $1,000 for clothing and school supplies grants of $700 per primary school student and $1,000 per secondary school student.

Under the National Social Development Programme, people can receive grants for minor house repairs of up to $20,000 in materials only to effect repairs/upgrades in the event of a disaster; sanitary plumbing assistance grants of up to $15,000 in materials only; and temporary food support valued at $550 will be given where food items were destroyed, payable where there is evidence of loss on food items.

Social workers attached to the National Family Services Division (NFSD) are ready to provide counselling and psychosocial support to individuals and families to help them cope with and manage stress during their period of recovery.