RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Prais­ing God for her bless­ings, grand­moth­er Geneive Pierre broke down in tears af­ter learn­ing that a Good Samar­i­tan had of­fered to pur­chase land and build a house for her af­ter hers col­lapsed last Mon­day.

Pierre re­ceived the news from Siparia May­or Dood­nath Mayrhoo, who has been pro­vid­ing food and sup­port for the fam­i­ly. Checks re­vealed that the land where she was liv­ing be­longed to a busi­ness­man from south Trinidad.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Pierre said she was thank­ful to fi­nal­ly have a place to call her own. She lives with her eight-year-old daugh­ter and nine-year-old grand­son and has been strug­gling since the death of her hus­band Gre­go­ry two years ago.

Pierre had used her last sav­ings of $25,000 to buy a small ply­wood house in South Oropouche af­ter she was un­able to pay rent. How­ev­er, the ply­wood house col­lapsed last Mon­day, leav­ing her and the chil­dren home­less.

Af­ter Guardian Me­dia high­light­ed her sto­ry, May­or Mayrhoo re­spond­ed to the fam­i­ly’s sit­u­a­tion and arranged for the dam­aged struc­ture to be de­mol­ished. He or­gan­ised for Pierre and the chil­dren to be giv­en tem­po­rary shel­ter at the Oropouche Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre.

Mayrhoo said he had spo­ken to a lawyer and the land pur­chase will be fi­nalised in the com­ing weeks. He said he ex­pect­ed that the fam­i­ly would move in­to their new home by the end of June. He al­so thanked every­one who of­fered as­sis­tance.

Pierre said once the home is re­built, she hopes her fam­i­ly can be re­unit­ed. Af­ter her hus­band’s death, her 21-year-old son be­gan ex­pe­ri­enc­ing de­pres­sion. Her el­dest daugh­ter, the moth­er of the nine-year-old boy, left home, and Pierre has not heard from her for sev­er­al years.

Min­is­ter of the Peo­ple and So­cial De­vel­op­ment, Van­dana Mo­hit, who al­so re­spond­ed to the fam­i­ly’s plight has been pro­vid­ing coun­selling sup­port through Na­tion­al Fam­i­ly Ser­vices.

Any­one wish­ing to as­sist can call Pierre at 278-1206 or May­or Mayrhoo at 751-3565.