MANY BARBADIANS say they were embarrassed to read of the plight of senior citizen Jenny Wooding who pays $5 in rent every week to live in squalor.
Wooding, 82, lives in a rickety house, with a leaking roof, rotten floorboards and an outdoor toilet, at Deans Village, St Michael. A nearby standpipe is also her only source of water.
When the living conditions of the former agricultural worker were highlighted in yesterday’s MIDWEEK NATION, readers on THE NATION’S Facebook were moved by the story and responded. Some even asked what local social workers were doing to address her situation.
These were some of the comments received:
Tennyson Joseph: “I’m ashamed as a Bajan to read this. Where is our pride? That lady paid her dues in industry. Shame, shame!”
Lyssa Norville: “How do you even charge for accommodations like that? Obviously, to collect only $5 you have to know what the building looks like.”
Rosanne Brathwaite: “This is disgusting and as punishment they should make the owner of this death trap live in it for six months! How hard and selfish you would have to be to actually make an old lady pay you any amount of money to live under these conditions? This is not the Barbados I grew up in.”
Alvin Roach: “It seems that in Barbados when you get old and grey you’re pretty much on your own. So much for social services.”
Veronica Wiltshire: “It is really a sad state. We as Bajans have become selfish, and to treat some person who worked in our agriculture industry like this. That owner/landlord should be brought before the court. We are not all fortunate in owning our own home.”
Spicy Nicki Harte: “How heartless of the owners. So sad. My God, provide for this woman, please. It’s truly a cold world out there.”
Teresa Douglas: “I have elderly relatives, and I would be ashamed to make them live like this and to collect money from someone who is barely receiving enough pension after toiling in the fields most of her life. Now, to our Housing Minister: please, please find this lady a decent place to live.”• carolmartindale@nationnews.com
