The director of the Rainbow Rescue, a home for boys, Judy Wilson, says if electrical work and plumbing are completed on time, the organisation will be in its new home by May.Wilson said the home's new Maraval building, which had been under construction for over a year, would be finished within the next two months once sponsors kept their promises to assist. She said the electrical work, which had already begun, had been donated by the T&TEC Mt Hope Sports Club.
"Imagine, we get water and electricity bills but we have neither of those things," she said.Wilson said the home had received support from companies and individuals but some people had made promises they did not keep. These empty promises, she said, were making an already difficult job even harder.She added: "Even so, I feel blessed. I am so thankful for all the support given to the home so far."
Wilson received a lease for the Saddle Road, Maraval, property in October 2011 after Rainbow Rescue outgrew the home's current Belmont location. Wilson, who had viewed the dilapidated structure in Maraval as a blessing, had a shock when, a month later, flooding in Maraval ravaged the property, destroying the right wall completely and partially destroying the wall on the left side.
She had just arrived on the property after buying bags of cement for labourers to complete the plastering work to the outside wall when she met a T&T Guardian team yesterday."The building turned out to be way more work than we expected," she said.Wilson said the building's signature red outside walls, which were made of a type of river stone, had to be supported by plaster as pieces of it would fall off with a single touch.
The previously abandoned property, situated at 2 Saddle Road, Maraval, had suffered from vandalism and most of the electrical wiring had been pulled out and pilfered. A new roof was put in and the floors changed completely. The inside has been transformed into a dormitory for the boys, aged eight to 19, a downstairs kitchen, offices, storerooms, a caretaker's room, bathrooms and closets. The new building will house 16 boys.
Wilson visits the site every day to check on the progress of work.
She said: "It took a miracle from the Lord to get it from the broken shell it was to a sturdy structure. A lot of the material was donated to us and we got financial donations, a lot of which went to labour costs."
She said the home still needed help in the form of paint for the outside of the building, kitchen cupboards, ceiling fans, air-conditioning units, closets and floodgates.