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Big change for Smalling - farmer gets new house for family

Published:Wednesday | September 20, 2017 | 12:00 AM
PauI MuIIings
It was all smiles and anxious excitement as Arthur Smalling and his family saw their home being built from the ground up. Front (from left) Smalling, his daughter and grandchild, pose with Spencer Reynolds, Senior Fields Officer and members of the N.C.B. Foundation Volunteer Corps who assisted in building the third of N.C.B. Foundation’s projected four homes for the Food For The Poor Jamaica’s 2017 'Build-A-Home' initiative.

Anyone can live in a house, but home is where the heart is. Yet for Arthur Smalling, his daughter and three grandchildren, home is now also a safe, dry and sanitary dwelling to lay their heads.

A Linstead, St Catherine resident and small farmer, Smalling and his family have been renting a dilapidated wooden house for many years, enduring a leaking roof, termite infestation and other unfavourable living conditions. But a new door opened on August 30, when Smalling's family moved into their newly constructed home, courtesy of the NCB Foundation and Food For The Poor Jamaica.

As part of its annual 'Build-A-Home' initiative, Food For The Poor, with the aid of generous partners, aims to provide houses for 100 families in 2017. This year, the NCB Foundation has invested $2 million, committing to build four homes, assisted by volunteers and guided by Food For The Poor professionals. Smalling's is the third house to be completed.

The NCB Foundation continues to support initiatives like these that further the betterment of Jamaica and the development of Jamaicans.