RALPH BAN­WARIE

The spread of COVID-19 has brought to light the dai­ly suf­fer­ing of many fam­i­lies, who are putting shame aside and mak­ing their pover­ty known cry­ing out for as­sis­tance that they have need­ed for a much longer time.

One such fam­i­ly is the Gopauls of Matu­ra, who at times have on­ly one meal per day and of­ten go to sleep with­out din­ner.

Jenelle Gopaul, moth­er of three chil­dren - An­drew, 10, Mic­ah, 8, and ba­by girl Sidon, 6 - told Guardian Me­dia that main­tain­ing a healthy lifestyle has come to nought.

With tears in her eyes, she said her hus­band is un­able to work as he is vi­su­al­ly blind, a di­a­bet­ic and has to at­tend clin­ic for three days per weeks for dial­y­sis treat­ment.

Gopaul men­tioned that her hus­band re­ceives a $2,000 grant, but this said that was in­suf­fi­cient to main­tain her fam­i­ly, as most of the mon­ey is spent on med­i­cine and trav­el­ling to clin­ic.

She said there is noth­ing left for gro­ceries or pay­ing for trav­el­ling for her three chil­dren to get to the Matu­ra Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School.

“My chil­dren have to walk to and from school in the hot sun or brave the rain. If they are lucky they might get a lift from some good Samar­i­tan," she said.

Gopaul said she is at home present­ly be­cause of COVID-19 and the Stay-at-Home mea­sures but has no mon­ey and food and is sur­viv­ing by the grace of God.

Her hus­band Nicholas Bap­tiste is un­em­ployed, vi­su­al­ly-im­paired, is a di­a­bet­ic and suf­fers from kid­ney fail­ure.

“It is like hell at this time for me,” she em­pha­sised.

What hurts she added is that the gov­ern­ment has put so many so­cial as­sis­tance in place for fam­i­lies like her, but it seems that these ben­e­fits are po­lit­i­cal­ly-in­clined and are not for the needy and poor peo­ple.

She said she has made at­tempts to ob­tain a food card and ham­pers from the Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment's of­fice but have so far been un­suc­cess­ful.

She added that they have no beds and share a mat­tress which is placed on the ground to sleep. Her chil­dren have to study un­der can­dle­light or pitchoil lamps, “It is very hard for us.”

Gopaul said some peo­ple have pledged to build a wash­room so that her ail­ing hus­band can have some re­lief from go­ing to an out­house.

Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment coun­sel­lor Ter­ry Ron­don has promised to of­fer sup­port to the fam­i­ly.