Narise Maharajh, 57, has lived a simple life for many years.
Almost three years ago, a fire destroyed her home at Centeno Trace, San Francique. A candle caused the blaze as she had no electricity in the small structure.
Relatives helped her rebuild a small plywood and galvanize structure. With the help of neighbours, she built a slightly bigger one-room structure out of similar materials.
But her living conditions remain the same. She still has no electricity or pipe-borne water.
At night a mattress on the wooden floor is where she sleeps. She has no other furniture.
Maharajh seldom has anything cold to drink and she cooks over a fireside in the hut.
“Life is hard for me. It is just me living here,” said Maharajh. She was never married and has no children. Her only company is two dogs.
“May, this year, will make it three years I running around trying to get a little help.”
She has been unable to get a supply of electricity because she does not have a deed for the land or house or a receipt.
Maharajh said her father owned the land but he has since died. She survives on a disability grant which she began receiving about 10 years ago after she suffered a nervous breakdown.
Every day, she has to walk about 100 feet to her brother’s house to full buckets of water and carry them back to her home.
“I don’t have any sickness but sometimes I just feel very weak. It does not be easy.”
She applied for a grant from the National Self-Help Commission after the fire in 2016 but she did not have the necessary documents. She has since made some progress and was told that an official will soon visit her home. She also has to get her birth certificate to apply for social welfare grants.
“I feel like I just cut off from the rest of the country because I don’t have no radio or TV to know what going on. Sometimes, I don’t even have anything to eat but I just try to make do with whatever I have. I am feeling frustrated.”
Maharajh wants a comfortable place to call home. “I feel like I can’t stay here any more. I just want to be comfortable.”
While she does not feel unsafe, Maharajh’s home is not properly secured.
“I feel is only through God that I survive so long. Sometimes when I feel weak I have certain prayers I say that makes me feel a little better.”
She said her relatives were not in a position to help her. Maharajh does not own a phone. Some of her neighbours described her as a quiet person who often kept to herself.