A WEEK after Nicole Tudor lost her Chapman Village, St Thomas home and all of her possessions to a fire, she is still lodging at a friend who initially told her she could stay one night.
Tudor, who is pleading for assistance in obtaining a home for herself and her five children, said the current living conditions were not suitable for the young children.
“It was supposed to be something temporary. The house has no electricity, indoor plumbing or bathroom facilities or a stove,” she said
Her biggest concern is that she has no bed and the children have to sleep on cushions on the floor.
“The children not coping, they not talking much, they say they are not comfortable and they are very unhappy,” Tudor said.
She said she got clothes for the children to wear at home and was hoping to have them back in school by next Monday, but so far she had no school clothes for the four children who were of school age.
They attend Grantley Adams Memorial, St Leonard’s Boys’ Secondary and Eden Lodge Primary.
The concerned mother said: “My daughter supposed to sit [the Common Entrance Examination] next year.
She’s learning well; the way she performing she could go to one of the top schools and she loves to read and be in her books.
“They are not bad children; they hear what I say. I just want to get the children back into school,” Tudor said.
Tudor’s friend Keith Cole, who opened his modest home in Whitehall to her and her children, said the conditions were not good for the children.
“I do not feel good about it. I do not like the facilities for the children at all. It could work for me because I go to work and I am not here – [I] just come home and sleep, but the children should not be like this,” Cole said.
Describing her situation as hard and tormenting to her soul, the 38-year-old mother said she could take care of herself if she just got a “start”.
“I focus on my children. I get my children young, but I stand my responsibility and got a home and made them comfortable,” Tudor said.
She said she had received a grant to start an agricultural project on the land in St Thomas and started to do gardening. She added that that was not something she was likely to continue but she could do painting.
She said that she went to the Member of Parliament for St Thomas, Cynthia Forde, who said she would contact the necessary agencies to get her some assistance. She also spoke of visiting the Welfare Department and the National Housing Corporation(NHC). She said she applied to NHC for a rental unit and someone came and took a report and she was awaiting word from them.
