RADHICA DE SILVA
radhica.sookraj@guardian.co.tt
Clutching her chest as she kneeled on the banks of the Ortoire River, 19-year-old Christianna Ramdial wept for her lost son, Allon, who is feared drowned.
The three-year-old toddler is believed to have fallen into the Ortoire River, but his body has not yet been recovered. As the search for the child continued on Saturday, the community remained hopeful that he would be found alive.
Recalling the tragedy, Ramdial said she woke up at 6:30 am on Friday and realised her son was not on the bed. She began calling him, but there was no answer.
"I started to panic. I went down in the river, checking all the depths, searching or holding all the boats trying to hold on. I still ain't find him," she said.
Ramdial then ran across the road and went to a nearby bar to search the security cameras.
Allon Ramdial
"They told me my son never came out the road. They not seeing him on the cameras," she cried. She then called the Mayaro police and within hours the Hunters Search and Rescue team and the Coast Guard began searching for the child.
Ramdial said over the past two years, she, her common-law husband, Carl Murphy who is a fisherman, and her son have been living at the unopened Ortoire Fishing Facility.
There is a gate to the back and Ramdial believes it was inadvertently left open.
"Someone tell me they see my lil boy chooking the crabs in the back. I say why you didn't come and wake me and tell me? I could have saved my son," Ramdial said as she continued crying.
She said sharks often came up the river and her worst fear was that her baby was eaten.
"They going to find his body rotten in the river. I can't bear that. I cannot bear to live without my child."
Saying the toddler had given her life meaning, Ramdial said she was a wreck before she had her son.
The young mother revealed that she lived at the St Jude's Children's home before running away at age 14. When Allon was born, Ramdial said she got a reason to live.
The pregnancy occurred when she was just 15, a year after she ran away from the St Jude's home. Ramdial said she had been put there by her father and his wife for "uncontrollable behaviour."
.Mayaro businessman and resident Shaka, left, speaks with PDP political leader Watson Duke in the Mayaro community on Thursday as little Allon Ramdial looks on.
After running away, she went to a cousin's home in La Romaine and got pregnant by a man under the influence of alcohol. After their brief encounter, Ramdial said she never saw him again but two months later she started to vomit and realised she was pregnant. Her cousin put her out saying the police will be involved as she was a minor.
Ramdial said she came back to her father's hometown in Mayaro and asked a relative for lodging.
"She told me no. She gave me $10 and three cigarettes. I walked down the road and met Carl. I explained my circumstances to him. He too was having a hard life and was in trouble, but he promised to take care of me and my baby," she revealed.
Saying Carl has been caring for Allon since then, Ramdial added, "My husband makes sure that Allon have pampers, milk and Nestum. He works in the sea and the bush. Eventually, we decided to stay in the facility because it was easier for us than to stay anywhere else."
Hunters Search and Rescue divers use a pirogue to comb the banks of the Ortoire River with the hope of finding the body of Allon Ramdial.
KRISTIAN DE SILVA
Ramdial said she blamed herself for sleeping late that morning. "I was tired from washing all the clothes and I woke up at 6:30 in the morning. Now I lost my son. I lost my everything."
Hunters Search and Rescue: We have exhausted all land searches
Meanwhile, Captain of the Hunters Search and Rescue team Vallence Rambharat said they had exhausted all land searches. He said 17 members of his team as well as the police and the Coast Guard had combed the length and breadth of the river as well as the banks but the child has not been found.
"Based on our experience, we are looking at a possible recovery," he revealed.
MP for Mayaro Rushton Paray said that he had no idea the family had been living in the facility. He said Mayaro had high levels of poverty and more social workers should be brought in to investigate the dire circumstances under which people live. He said although programmes existed, the most vulnerable, like Ramdial, often fall through the cracks because of the high level of bureaucracy in getting aid.
Members of the Coast Guard dive team survey the Ortoire River as they join the search yesterday.
KRISTIAN DE SILVA
Villagers: Don't blame the mother
While the community mourned for the lost toddler, several villagers begged the country to not judge Ramdial.
Akeisha Flores said, "She is a good mother. That baby is always clean, always fed, and he is always with her. She loved him and would take good care of him. That day she was sleeping when he left. Nobody knows the pain that teenage mother suffered, so nobody should judge her because she is doing her best."
Another villager Walter Whiteman said Ramdial needed psychological help.
"I am afraid of what will happen to her if she loses her son. Yesterday we had to hold her back from jumping into the river. She needs counselling. She doesn't need people to judge her. She is suffering, and she had a hard hard life."
Scores of villagers have been joining the search with the hope of finding the baby alive. The search was expected to continue overnight and also tomorrow.
Captain Vallence Rambharat from the Hunters Search and Rescue team speaks to his contingent as they prepare to resume the search for missing toddler Allon Ramdial yesterday.
KRISTIAN DE SILVA
