Shal­iza?Has­sanali

Christ­mas came ear­ly for 51 res­i­dents of Matelot, Grand Riv­iere and St He­le­na vil­lages who were af­fect­ed by re­cent floods and land­slides as they re­ceived $350,000 worth of stoves, fridges, tele­vi­sions, liv­ing room sets, mat­tress­es and elec­tric fans yes­ter­day from the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices.

An­oth­er 15 house­holds are al­so ex­pect­ed to re­ceive ap­pli­ances and fur­ni­ture from Capil's Fur­ni­ture Store in San­gre Grande in the com­ing days.

The items, ac­cord­ing to for­mer chair­man of the San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion Ter­ry Ron­don put a smile on the faces of the res­i­dents who were ma­rooned re­cent­ly from the rest of Trinidad, af­ter two bridges were washed away and the road­way was left cov­ered by slush, rocks and fall­en elec­tric­i­ty, ca­ble wires and trees.

Late last month per­sis­tent rains, led to sev­en roofs be­ing up­root­ed, a dis­rup­tion in elec­tric­i­ty and wa­ter sup­plies, while sev­er­al homes along the coast­line were flood­ed.

Ron­don thanked So­cial De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Cher­rie-Ann Crichlow-Cock­burn for help­ing 66 fam­i­lies who suf­fered loss­es fol­low­ing the dis­as­ter at the north­east coastal vil­lage.

In to­tal, 26 mat­tress­es, 25 stoves, 12 tele­vi­sions, 12 fans and 30 liv­ing room sets were dis­trib­uted to the res­i­dents.

Each fam­i­ly got an item.

"I am hap­py to an­nounce that these fam­i­lies were well treat­ed this morn­ing. Christ­mas came ear­ly for them. It was grat­i­fy­ing to see them smile once more af­ter fac­ing that dev­as­ta­tion. At least they can en­joy their Christ­mas like the rest of T&T. Re­mem­ber all their house­hold ap­pli­ances and fur­ni­ture were cov­ered in mud and wa­ter. They lost prac­ti­cal­ly every­thing. Their homes were in a mess. It left them feel­ing de­spon­dent and hope­less. This morn­ing all of that has changed," Ron­don said.

Ron­don said 15 ad­di­tion­al fam­i­lies were al­so in line to col­lect items as well.

"The cor­po­ra­tion will drop off thse items at their homes very soon."

He praised the cor­po­ra­tion's dis­as­ter unit and min­istry for their quick re­sponse in try­ing to help the fam­i­lies get back on their feet.