RADHICA DE SILVA
radhica.sookraj@guardian.co.tt
As the hours passed with no sign of her lost son, Christianna Ramdial left the Ortoire Fishing facility for the first time on Saturday night.
Even though she was reluctant to leave the banks of the river, a relative took her home and allowed her and her common-law husband Carl Murphy temporary lodging.
Ramdial had spent most of Saturday gazing out into the river and walking along the Ortoire Main Road with tears streaming down her face, waiting for her three-year-old son Allon Ramdial to come back home.
But when dawn came on Sunday, Ramdial told Guardian Media she no longer wanted to go back to the cramped, unventilated room of the fishing facility where they had been sleeping for the past two years.
"That was where he has his little blanket, his clothes, his broken toys. I can't take it to go there," she cried.
Allon was just seven months when she and her common-law husband Carl Murphy moved into the unopened Ortoire Fishing facility. They had no other place to go and even though Murphy was not Allon's biological father, he worked hard at sea to buy milk, pampers and food for his family.
Initially, the family stayed in an air-conditioned room to the front but when the electricity supply was cut, they moved into a room at the back.
"Mosquitoes was biting up my child in the front room and that's why I took him to the back. But it look like it was better if I had stayed up in front," she wept.
In an interview on Sunday morning, Captain Vallence Rambharat from the Hunters Search and Rescue team told Guardian Media they have completed a search in the mouth of the Ortoire River and the sea without success.
Teams returned to comb the river bank and the seashore. They were joined by eight members of West General maintenance, a private Mayaro-based company led by Westley Mohammed.
In an exclusive interview with Guardian Media, Mohammed said he decided to join the search because he had the equipment and manpower to assist.
"The whole community of Mayaro is crying out for this child. He was so well known. Whenever we dock at the facility, he used to come and give everyone a bounce. He was a friendly child. Going forward as of today, we will be searching throughout the day and the night to find this child," Mohammed vowed.
He also called for a streamlined social intervention in the Mayaro constituency which is plagued by high poverty, unemployment and illiteracy.
"This is a community tragedy. I am from Guayaguayare and I can tell you that we have a lot of children who are suffering in this area," he added.
Mohammed said a social welfare office should be set up in Mayaro and teams should be going from house to house to assess the needs of impoverished families.
Guardian Media will bring you more as this story unfolds.
