Loyse Vin­cent

Much like the rest of the world, most To­bag­o­ni­ans have pulled in­to their per­son­al spaces to pre­vent the spread of COVID-19.

And while many strug­gle with com­par­a­tive­ly triv­ial is­sues like bore­dom and the clo­sure of fast-food restau­rants, some have no food to feed their fam­i­lies as they have been hit the hard­est by the pan­dem­ic.

Good Samar­i­tans have, how­ev­er, stepped in and are go­ing the dis­tance to help those who are so­cial­ly vul­ner­a­ble.

Jody Melville is one of those per­sons qui­et­ly as­sist­ing peo­ple who need help ac­cess­ing Gov­ern­ment’s so­cial grants.

Melville told To­ba­go To­day she un­der­stands not every­one in need of a grant can fill out the forms.

“I was al­so af­fect­ed by COVID-19, so when the Gov­ern­ment sent out the in­for­ma­tion about as­sist­ing per­sons with a tem­po­rary month­ly grant, I de­cid­ed to do my home­work and did it for my­self,” she re­vealed.

She said while go­ing through the process, she re­alised per­sons who are not com­put­er lit­er­ate and who have no ac­cess to a scan­ner and a com­put­er can­not fill out the form sat­is­fac­to­ri­ly.

Nat­u­ral­ly, she of­fered help to those in need.

“I sent out a Face­book post with my tele­phone num­ber to share it with any­one who needs my help.”

Melville said the re­sponse to her post has been over­whelm­ing.

“I get calls from as ear­ly as 6 am. I al­ways an­swer with a smile be­cause I don't know what a per­son's men­tal state is at this time. I try my best to be care­ful, these are try­ing times so we have to help care and love one an­oth­er.”

While she ad­mits it's some­times over­whelm­ing, she im­me­di­ate­ly con­ced­ed, “I love help­ing peo­ple, so it’s a norm.”

The sin­gle moth­er is al­so the own­er of “Pur­ty Visa Ap­pli­ca­tion,” which guides peo­ple with the visa ap­pli­ca­tion process for the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca and Cana­da.

She said she is no stranger to help­ing oth­ers as she has al­so as­sist­ed stu­dents, school and dance groups and NGOs with the visa ap­pli­ca­tion process for free.