Sascha Wil­son

Over­whelmed by the out­pour­ing of do­na­tions and sup­port by the pub­lic over the last few weeks, Teeluck­d­har­ry Seemu­n­gal, ex­claimed: “It comes like we’re liv­ing in a par­adise now!”

Seemu­n­gal, who lives in the for­est at San­to Trace, Mendez Vil­lage, Siparia, with his wife, three chil­dren and grand­son, ex­pressed his grat­i­tude to every­one who came to their aid since their plight was high­light­ed by the me­dia.

With a lim­it­ed sup­ply of wa­ter since they don’t have a pipe bourne sup­ply of wa­ter, the fam­i­ly was some­times forced to use dirty wa­ter from a pond, which was used to ir­ri­gate their gar­den, to cook, drink, bathe and per­form house­hold chores.

How­ev­er, Seemu­n­gal told Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day that they were now re­ceiv­ing a reg­u­lar sup­ply of truck borne wa­ter from the Pe­nal-Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion.

Good Samar­i­tans do­nat­ed six wa­ter tanks and dug two ponds to sup­ply his gar­den. Giv­ing all-round as­sis­tance to the fam­i­ly, Vick­ram Ha­ja­ree of the Open Bible Stan­dard Church­es do­nat­ed 2,500 seeds in­clud­ing ochro, corn, sor­rel and pi­geon peas, as well as 200 plan­tain plants.

Al­so, the pas­tor and his mem­bers do­nat­ed a stove, cesspit tank, and a toi­let set, as well as ma­te­ri­als to re­build a sec­tion of the roof, and pro­vid­ed labour.

He said the pas­tor al­so promised to pur­chase chick­ens for him to rear. Seemu­n­gal who works part-time at the cor­po­ra­tion is now con­tem­plat­ing grow­ing and sell­ing pro­duce to earn an in­come.

The fam­i­ly still does not have an elec­tri­cal sup­ply, but a com­pa­ny has of­fered to in­stall a so­lar sys­tem.

“I have to thank the peo­ple in Trinidad peo­ple who as­sist us so much. Pas­tor Ha­jarie, Mr Mood­ie, you all, every­one who help us and even those who want­ed to help but could not af­ford to.”

Seemu­n­gal, how­ev­er, is still hop­ing for a prop­er road to his home.