Architect offers help for south Oropouche family

Architect Renee Bryan wants to design the three-bedroom house a Princes Town family has promised to build for evicted Dave Nagoo and his family in south Oropouche, who were forced to sleep for three nights in their Nissan March car.

A house is not a home, Bryan told the Newsday yesterday, if maximum use is not made of space in a bedroom or living. With that in mind, the young architect requested that Riaz Khan allow her do the architectural design of what will be a wooden house for Nagoo, wife Indira, and their three daughters who are aged between seven and ten years old.

Bryan, who holds a master’s degree in design management and recently returned to her home in San Fernando, is among scores of people moved by the plight of the Nagoo family. A land dispute between Nagoo, 38, and a relative, saw him being served last week Wednesday with a restraining order which was taken out by the relative at the Siparia Magistrates’ court. Nagoo, who sells fish, was forced to uproot his family and leave south Oropouche. He must stay 100 metres from the house which he said he rebuilt with government’s assistance. As a result, the father slept with his wife and three daughters in his small Nissan March car on the Quinam Beach, Penal. On Thursday, they spent the night at Cushe Village, Mayaro in their car and on Friday, at Kings Wharf, San Fernando.

Khan’s ten-year-old twin daughters, Mariah and Mayah, read the Nagoo family’s predicament in Sunday’s Newsday. They asked their father if he could adopt Nagoo’s three daughters, however, Khan promised to build the family a three-bedroom house. Yesterday, Khan visited the Nagoo family and he took the various measurements for construction of the house. Khan said, “I was very happy to see the family. We did the measurements and weekend we’re going to start construction.”

Told that architect Bryan wanted to chip in with her knowledge of design after she was also touched by the family’s plight and wanted to make her contribution, Khan responded by saying he preferred to confine the project as an effort on the part of his twin daughters. “I appreciate her good intentions, but, I have my own builder. Tell her thanks,” Khan said.

Bryan, however, is not letting down. She told the Newsday that she would visit the family after Khan delivers his house and will advise them on what she described yesterday as “the critical use of space”. Bryan said, “Even when you build a house, it needs to be completed.