radhica.sookraj@guardian.co.tt
Hope has come to blind singer Imtiaz Ali three years after he and his family evacuated their crumbling home because of a landslip.
Ali, 48, his wife Vero, 41 and their six children moved into a humble plywood house left for Ali by his father at North Boundary Road, Ecclesville.
The house was devoid of running water and lights.
Ali said every day he would have to find money to buy fuel to power a generator so that his children could do online classes.
In late October, solar company RESSCOTT Limited, Miss World T&T Jeanine Brandt, Mayaro MP Rushton Paray, the Brandt Beauty Foundation, Maurissa O’Connor from the T&T Police Service and platinum Sponsor– Touchstone Exploration Trinidad Ltd came to the family’s aid.
They provided a solar-powered supply to the family so they no longer needed to be in an electrical grid.
Speaking to Guardian Media on Monday, Ali said getting power for his family was a dream come true.
“Where we lived before we had electricity. But after that house went down with the cave land and we moved in this house, we had no lights. I am accustomed to the darkness, I was born blind but not my family. We survived using the generator,” Ali revealed.
He said now that they had solar-powered lights he could make his music once again.
“I could sing chutney. I have my own compositions, Driving Too Hard and Pull Out The Lard. That is my latest one,” Ali said.
He added that the greatest joy was seeing his children connect to classes.
The principal from the school provided a router for them.
Ali said because they live in a valley, connectivity was not always reliable but at least they could download their school work on the laptops.
Ali added: “The fridge working, the washing machine working and little by little we will work and buy up we little material to fix back the house.”
He said his eldest children aged 21, 19 and 17 were finding it difficult to get jobs.
“Since COVID they cannot find anything to do so we planting a little garden to get by. We have fig and shadow benny and whatever else we could plant,” he added.
Meanwhile, Managing Director and Co-Founder of RESSCOTT Graeme Jones said they were pleased to help the Ali family.
He said RESSCOTT was committed to supporting clean energy.
“Having displaced 50 Million Kg of Carbon Emissions so far, we believe that the subsequent benefits of providing clean, reliable solar power to rural communities are substantial.”
He said RESSCOTT had surpassed their charitable target for 2021 and was doubling it for 2022.
Since it started its thrust to enhance electrification in rural communities, Jones said the company has increased their target to 6kW for this year.
He said RESSCOTT’s solar engineers assessed the facility and installed an engineered 3kW solar system capable of running all basic household appliances.
Anyone wanting to assist the Ali family with building materials can call Imtiaz at
394-8630.