Homeless Hanover family happy with new container home

Western Bureau:

When Hurricane Melissa devastated Jamaica on October 28 last year, 44-year-old Theresa Diana Wedderburn of Pell River, Hanover, and her husband and five children, were among the scores of impacted families that were left homeless.

After weeks without a proper place to lay their heads at night, the family now has a proper shelter, thanks to the efforts of the member of parliament (MP) for Hanover Western, Heatha Miller-Bennett, who has launched an initiative to assist affected families in her constituency.

Today, Wedderburn is the happy owner of a container house, which was placed on the spot where her original home once stood, last Saturday. The gift has left her overwhelmed, which was shown on her face when she turned the key to open the door and make her entry into the house for the first time.

“I am very happy and overjoyed. I don’t have to sleep in the old kitchen, or with generous neighbours tonight,” she told The Gleaner. “The whole structure [of my original house] did get damage inna di hurricane, and me did kotch with somebody for the time being, so mi looking forward to sleeping comfortable in mi own house again tonight.”

Opposition Leader Mark Golding, who was present in Pell River to witness the installation of the container house, commended Miller-Bennett for her ‘Fix a Roof’ initiative, which spearheaded the project through contributions solicited locally and from the Jamaican diaspora.

However, while praising Miller-Bennett, Golding took the Government to task, giving them a failing grade for its slowness in responding to the suffering caused by the hurricane, especially regarding housing, saying it is taking too long to work out the modalities to assist the affected persons.

“Most people who have had damage to their houses still have not received any kind of relief from the State to help them get back on their feet. That help has been too slow in coming,” said Golding, while noting that not all persons affected need help.

“We are not seeing the resources that have been deployed on the ground, and people are getting increasingly frustrated; and I am also a little perplexed,” continued Golding.

“Even the housing initiative that they (the Government) have announced for J$10 billion, that really does not represent a very substantial portion of the financing that they say that they have raised, and you wonder, what are they doing with the money, or what do they plan to do with the money?”

Golding also spoke about the large number of people who have suffered infrastructural damage to their homes, whether through partial or complete destruction.

“I am just not clear on what the government strategy is. I do not think that they have really communicated it to Jamaica what their strategy for the recovery is,” he said, describing the Government’s approach as piecemeal and ad hoc.

Golding also questioned the allocations to MPs for housing repairs, describing it as “quite onerous”, arguing that MPs have been struggling to properly implement the intended relief as there is no allocation to cover the fieldwork required.

“We are nearly three months now since the hurricane, and we really need to see a proper plan, and a proper structure for that plan,” he said.

Speaking with The Gleaner, Miller-Bennett described the donation of the container house as one way of giving recipient a sense of pride and hope.

“Other persons are benefiting from our support,” she said, in noting that the target under the initiative is to assist at least five families per week.

The container house, and others to be installed, came through a special donation from C M Recycling, located on Spanish Town Road in Kingston.

editorial@gleanerjm.com