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A seven-member Queen’s Drive family needs help to repair their house, the foundations of which gave way amidst heavy rain Saturday night.
The three-bedroom concrete house is home to Noel “Cock” Gill, his wife, Prudence and their five children — ages 2, 9, 11, 14, and 18, three of whom are still in school.
Mr. Gill is an auto mechanic and his wife a domestic.
One bedroom and the bathroom were damaged when the foundation of the building shifted around midnight Saturday.
Cracks have also appeared in some of the walls inside the house.
The couple says the house was first damaged by a tremor, which resulted in cracks some months ago.
However, the family did not receive any help from the government, although officials visited and inspected the property, they say.
Mrs. Gill told iWitness News that the foundation of the house was being undermined by rain.
“But there was a slight earthquake a couple months ago, maybe in late December-January, around there, so I figure that is why it … cracked,” she said.
Mr. Gill, however, said that the foundation of the house was weak, “more or less washing out” because of rain.
Mrs. Gill said her neighbour had called the Member of Parliament for the area, Cecil “Ces” McKie some months ago to see the house.
McKie visited and advised her to also visit the National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO).
After repeated trips to NEMO, they sent an engineer who said “the project is very big, meaning it would cost a lot of money, and it’s not because of the slight shaking why the house move,” Mrs. Gill said.
She said the NEMO engineer told her that the house was damaged because of poor construction.
She said NEMO advised them to look for a place to rent, but all the places that they found were between EC$800 and EC$1,000 a month, which exceeded NEMO’s budget.
“But then it break away again. It break away real bad,” Mrs. Gill said.
“This time, we definitely have to move because almost the whole side is gone,” she said, noting that the house is also a treat to other in the area.
The family remained in the house after the foundation gave way Saturday night.
They are appealing to the government for assistance to repair the house.
Is this (or any) government duty bound to repair or replace every house privately bought, owned, or built by any citizen?
Is a poor country like ours duty bound to do so when such a practice would adversely affect its other well established duties such the provision of education, medical treatment, police service, road building, etc.?
Yes, I know that the Prime Minister has said that housing is a basic Vincentian human right but this was just political rhetoric rather than something entrenched in law or age-old tradition.
Still, a lot of people — including this couple — seem to believe that they deserve to be supported from cradle to grave by the state, a view that has surely been indoctrinated in them by this regime.
Fortunately, despite the indoctrination we simply don’t have the resources to fulfill this dehumanizing vision of the perfect society.
Hush your face C. ben, you muddying up man waters. After reading this and remembering other similar cradle to the grave expectations I-man go put on some ULP campaign stickers on my trucks then ask Ces to help I repair my garage.
Is the stickers what go do the trick. Every time.
As they say, Patrick, if you can’t win them, join them.
Forgot to ask why this poor, hungry couple have five pickney to feed. Guess they never heard about birth control, especially the big-bubbie wife getting herself tied off after shitting out the second child and then looking for a job, any job, to help herself and her family. But as you say, welcome to the wierd and wonderful word of dependency on Papa Comrade.
Good points! Where should the line be drawn? Free medical care, to include Kidney treatments, transplants, etc…? Some countries do have all medical care free and they do well at it, (not great). In SVG we are told … fooled into an indoctrination that the ULP should give houses to everyone, even when they cannot pave the roads or fix leaking roofs in government buildings. Shows how dumb we the people are believing we are entitled.