Senior grateful for help but still desperate for house
SIXTY-YEAR-OLD AGATHA Smith of Diamond district in Rock River, Clarendon, expressed to The Gleaner how overwhelmed she was by the outpouring of love shown to her by readers, since her story was carried in the paper on Saturday, July 18.
“I’m feeling good now because I couldn’t finance myself, but thanks to all those who helped me; may God always bless them each day,” she said, acknowledging that prior to getting the assistance, her life was a living hell. She said she thanks God daily for answering her prayer by sending help.
Carey Crooks, president of the Rotary Club of Kingston East and Port Royal, said a friend who read article brought Smith’s plight to his attention. He, however, was not prepared for what he saw when he visited the place Smith calls home.
“I must confess that I have never before seen human beings living in such abject poverty and squalor. They are not only deprived of the basic amenities of life, such as sanitary convenience (toilet), but even worse, they have no running water. And to compound the problem for the family, there is no father figure in the home. I am filled with sadness to see their plight and still haunted by the memory of what I saw,” he said of his motivation to help, through sponsor VIC Alarms Limited, who promised the family a 1,000-gallon Rhino Tank with the appropriate piping and the sanitary convenience to ease their suffering on behalf of the club.
Crooks said the tank has been procured, as well as the building materials needed to construct the sanitary convenience. He said as soon as Food For The Poor (FFP) delivers on the promised house, they are ready to assist with the furnishing.
A grateful Smith said as thankful as she is for the beds donated by FFP, she is anxiously awaiting the building of the house as she has sleepless nights thinking about the rainy season.
“What I urgently need now is the house, because when the rain falls, water flows through like river.
If I could just get the house before there is a hurricane, because to tell you the truth, where I am can’t withstand heavy rain and breeze,” she said.