RADHICA DE SILVA
The resilience of mother of four Crystal Dick and her husband Rajesh Cyril has touched the hearts of many as they struggle to survive during the pandemic.
Since the story was aired on CNC3 News, Dick has started receiving help.
"I am so thankful for all the calls I received," Dick told Guardian Media.
Rather than depend solely on handouts, Dick has been rearing common-fowl to feed her family.
Every day she collects stale bread from the village shops which she uses to feed the chickens.
In an exclusive interview with Guardian Media last week, Dick, of Marvin Crescent, Aripero said she was hoping that in a few months, she will be able to get eggs and meat to feed her family, as well as to earn an income.
The young mother says she worries about her four children aged 11, 10, eight and three. The two youngest do not have birth papers. The others attend the South Oropouche RC School. They have no devices and Dick says they have missed most of the school term and their end of term exams.
They have no electricity or running water so every day the children have to walk on a rickety plank to cross a ravine to fill water to cook, bathe and drink.
But despite the challenges, Dick always looks on the bright side of life.
"Living here is really nice, I can’t lie, it's just the different complications like no water and no current. But to live as a family out here is nice, quiet and nice when the night comes," she said.
Dick said before building the plywood galvanized shack, she lived in a one-bedroom apartment but after the ceiling fell, she and Cyril went begging for scraps of wood, which they used to build a house at Aripero.
However, Dick said their living conditions were not the safest for their children.
"The river has alligators (caimans) and people cesspit flows over and comes through the track. My kids have to pass through there. It has snakes, scorpions there so I does be really afraid for them to pass there," she said.
She appealed to the government to clean the stagnating river and to build a proper track.
When rain falls, the water comes up under her home.
"The children getting sick and they also getting heats and rashes on their skin, I have to take them to the hospital," she said pointing to sores on her daughter's skin.
Cyril said they had no money for medical care.
"Since COVID, everything lock off. We just living day to day, hoping that every day we could get something to cook or eat," she said.
Dick added, "Sometimes we eat, sometimes we don’t eat. Sometimes, we eat once a day. It has some days I don’t eat just to make sure the children have something to eat."
But despite the setbacks, Dick said she was determined to make a better life for her children.
"I bought two common-fowl chickens and I got 40 chickens out of that two. But with the floods, some of them drown and now all I have is 21 of them. I am trying to make a start, sell the eggs and chickens as fast as they grow so I can make a little income because things really hard," she said.
Dick says she is also growing a kitchen garden.
"I'm trying my best to start to organize my little kitchen garden. I have two paw paw trees. They are fruitful, thank God for that, so even though we have nothing to eat, we can eat paw paw," she added.
Dick is appealing to the public to help her build her home.
"If anyone has construction material, we will be really thankful. I also want the drain cleaned because it is not safe for the children. I worry that an alligator would raff the children when my back turned," she added.
Anyone wanting to assist Dick can contact her at 268-3511.