This year may just be a bet­ter one for Ra­jnee Sam­lal, 11, of Wil­son Road, Pe­nal. Ra­jnee was born dis­abled. She is un­able to walk and lives with her par­ents in a small shack. She has nev­er at­tend­ed school and she has a speech prob­lem. Her moth­er is un­able to read and her fa­ther cuts grass for a liv­ing.

How­ev­er, Ra­jnee's liv­ing con­di­tions are ex­pect­ed to im­prove this year as in a week's time, her fam­i­ly will va­cate their ply­wood shack and move in­to one of the hous­es con­struct­ed by the Gov­ern­ment to as­sist sin­gle moth­ers and needy fam­i­lies, through a hous­ing pro­gramme su­per­vised by the Min­istry of Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment and the Na­tion­al Com­mis­sion for Self Help Ltd.

Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Dr Su­ruj Ram­bachan vis­it­ed the Sam­lal fam­i­ly and the sites where five of these homes are be­ing con­struct­ed in rur­al com­mu­ni­ties in south Trinidad, on New Year's Day. Ram­bachan said the home for Ra­jnee and her fam­i­ly was con­struct­ed with a wheel­chair ramp and oth­er fit­tings for dis­abled peo­ple. The min­is­ter said he has al­so or­gan­ised for the child to get a speech ther­a­pist. He has al­so put mea­sures in place for Ra­jnee to at­tend school.

Ram­bachan said the pro­gramme to con­struct the hous­es start­ed af­ter it was an­nounced in the last bud­get. He said 100 of these hous­es were be­ing built in this fis­cal year at a cost of $100,000 each. Con­struc­tion of homes in Ca­roni and Ari­ma is ex­pect­ed to start lat­er this month.

The min­is­ter said he would like to see the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty and well-to-do peo­ple start tak­ing on a wider so­cial role and as­sist needy fam­i­lies in their com­mu­ni­ties so they do not fall through the cracks. He said he viewed this as in­vest­ing in peo­ple and would one day be able to con­tribute in a pos­i­tive man­ner to so­ci­ety. Ram­bachan said ap­pli­ca­tions for hous­ing were be­ing as­sessed.

He said rec­om­men­da­tions were be­ing made through the of­fices of all MPs.