- courtesy of Food for the Poor, St. Francis Community Developers
Three families from the Corentyne on Tuesday had their dreams come true, as they each received a brand new, well-painted wooden house, with basic necessities, from Food for the Poor (Guyana) Inc., in collaboration with the St Francis Community Developers.
The three families who hail from Rose Hall Town and Williamsburg, Corentyne were presented with the keys to their new homes at a ceremony, held at the St. Francis headquarters in Rose Hall Town.
Amongst those in attendance at the ceremony, was Food for the Poor (Guyana) Inc. Senior Manager, Andrea Benjamin, who was responsible for the project. She reminded the gathering how difficult it is for low income families to acquire loans to improve their lives, whilst highlighting that this was one of the main reasons for the housing project. She noted that adequate housing is necessary in improving living standards amongst the poor and low income families.
“The housing programme is designed to provide assistance to underprivileged families in need of adequate shelter, it allows families to realize their dreams of owning their own homes”, she said.
Benjamin in her speech begged the recipients to take care of and beautify the houses given to them. “You have been given a rare gift, an opportunity that families don’t have, please care and beautify your home and surroundings, nothing pleases us more than when we build a home for a family, and we are to come back in a year or two from now, to see that the home is maintained and cared for”.
Jennifer Henry, mother of six, one of the recipients who previously resided in a one bedroom house, shared her gratitude for the donation. “I’m so glad, you do a wonder for me, I was giving up”, the woman said. She also thanked the President of the St. Francis Community Developers Alex Foster for the part he played, “If wasn’t for Alex Foster and God, I would have given up”. She urged other underprivileged families to also have faith and never give up.
Foster also joined with Benjamin and urged the recipients to take good care of their houses. He also announced that ten other houses are scheduled to be built within the next few months.
According to Foster, this is just the beginning of the housing project in Region Six, as they are now teaming up with the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission to get the approval for a plot of land to build a village, which is expected to consist of fifty houses.
The housing project began some twelve years ago, and thus far, over 3000 houses have been built throughout Guyana. In 2016,
one hundred and forty units were constructed, inclusive of a village with forty three houses and a community centre in Onderneeming, West Coast Berbice.