SHARLENE RAMPERSAD
sharlene.rampersad@guardian.co.tt
Almost two months after floodwaters ravaged the homes of hundreds of citizens, single mother Nalini Narine is still pleading with the Ministry of Social Development for the flood relief grant.
Narine and her four children—Dillano, 15, Sidell, 13, Celine, ten and Celeste, eight—had to flee their Kelly Village home on October 19 when floodwaters rose as high as five feet inside their home.
Since then, they have been staying with a relative in La Paille Village, but Narine said they have overstayed their welcome and are now desperate to get back home. She is the family's sole breadwinner as her husband is in prison after he missed a court date for a marijuana charge and his bail was revoked days before the flood.
But Narine lost her job at a roti shop when she was unable to go to work for several days during and after the flood.
“This used to be my home, but we are unable to come here to stay. Since the flood I have been trying to do whatever and it's me alone. I am unable to get money to travel around to do anything. I not saying that I cannot come to clean it, but I don’t have any help. All I want help to do is get my house back to living conditions so I can come home with my children,” a tearful Narine told Guardian Media Limited on Saturday.
None of the children have attended school since the flood, as they lost all their books, bags, and uniforms and Narine does not have the money to repurchase the items.
Her unfinished brick house remains littered with flood-soaked clothing, beds, her children’s school books and bags, and the family’s other belongings. Narine said with help from neighbours, she was able to dispose her damaged fridge, stove, and washing machine in the days following the flood.
She said she has attended several cheque distributions, hoping to hear her name called without success.
The last time she was able to contact the ministry via phone, she was told her name was no longer on the list for a grant and she would have to be reassessed.
“The last time I got through with them they told me my place has to assessed again, so supposed I had gotten help to clean here, what they were going to come to see? I get some help to throw out the fridge, stove, and machine because I knew they already did the assessment.”
Narine’s interview with GML was carded for Friday but she called on Friday morning to ask if it could be rescheduled as she had gotten a day’s work to clean someone’s house.
“Right now I living hamper to hamper, I don’t know what to do again, whatever little work I can get I take it but it’s nothing much and I cannot leave my children where we staying all the time to go to work.”
Calls to the cellphone of Social Development Minister Cherrie-Ann Crichlow-Cockburn went unanswered yesterday.