PEACHES HENRY YEARNS FOR A HOME - Jamaica Observer - March 1, 2015

Abigail Reid, one of Peaches Henry's five children, scoops up the remainder of cornmeal porridge that was prepared earlier in the day for the family.

BY AINSWORTH MORRIS Sunday Observer Writer

AT 3:00 each morning, while many Jamaicans are asleep, Peaches Henry departs from her home to sweep a section of the Hagley Park Road to Bay Farm Road in St Andrew.

Henry, a 38-year-old single mother with five children living in nearby Waltham Park, does it with the aim of earning $8,000 each fortnight, which is used to provide for her household.

According to Henry, sweeping the streets each morning in darkness is not the career choice that she dreamt of having when she was younger. But it is the best option that has been presented to her since she lost her husband, Omar Reid, five years ago after he was shot and killed, and after the garment factory in the Kingston Freezone, where she once worked, ended its operations.

"Mi nuh have no other choice. Mi nuh have nothing else fi do but sweep road. I used to work at garment factory making baby clothes and gowns for hospitals, but since it close down, although I had the skill of sewing, I cannot get a good job, and this is what I end up doing -- sweeping the streets each day," Henry said during a recent interview.

In addition to finding it difficult to provide for her children, ages six, seven, nine, 16 and 18, from the $8,000 which she earns fortnightly from sweeping, she said that her greatest fear presently, is the house in which she lives crumbling one night while she sleeps with her children inside.

"I have been living in this house since I was 11 years old. It is very old. It belonged to my father, who is now dead, but I cannot afford to get a better house or to move out. The house it made out of rotten pieces of board and zinc which I am expecting to fall apart at any given time," Henry said.

"The board is rotten, very rotten. When di rain fall, inside the house have more water than outside the house. I have to set small buckets all over the house just to protect us from water coming in. If I don't do that, the beds will wet up. Right now, two of the children are sick, so I know it's not good for them. These conditions are not healthy. My greatest dream right now is to have a more comfortable home for me and my children," she stated.

Henry is just one of over 6,000 people currently registered on Food For The Poor (FFP) Jamaica's waiting list for houses.

According to Executive Director, FFP Jamaica David Mair, hundreds of persons on FFP's waiting list are lower-level employed Jamaicans like Henry, with skills, willing to work, but unable to secure loans or to save to build their own homes given the state of the economy.

"Unfortunately, the reality is that many Jamaicans on our waiting list for houses are employed Jamaicans who are desperately in need and living below our country's poverty line. Their income is too little for them to build sustainable and hygienic environments for their children, while sending them to school," Mair said.

Mair said that given the urgency to provide an environment that is hygienic for Henry's children, she has been pushed into the group of mothers who will benefit from a two-bedroom house which will be built for her from profits that will be earned from FFP's inaugural 5K Run/Walk.

"This is one of the reasons we have decided to host a 5K Run/Walk on May 9, the eve of Mother's Day, and during Child's Month. It currently costs our charity organisation US$6,400 to build a two-bedroom house for a family. In order to do this, and continue our mandate of 'Changing Lives -- Restoring Families', our non-profit organisation needs more financial support," Mair said.

"We continue to help the needy on a daily basis. However, if we could increase our donor base with the assistance and donation from corporate Jamaica, we could accomplish much more and help more families," he added.

Henry was recently visited by an assessment team from FFP and the dynamic group and FFP Jamaica 5K ambassadors, No-Maddz, who announced to her that she was selected to benefit from the 5K in May.

"I am thankful that Food For The Poor has considered to assist me and my children with a house. I am very grateful for all they have done for me already," she said.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Peaches-Henry-yearns-for-a-home_18472460

Dynamic Jamaican band No-Maddz and Food For The Poor team members pose during a visit to Peaches Henry and her family in Waltham Park recently. Sharing in the photo with No-Maddz are FFP's Relief Development Manager Marsha Burrell (left), Social Intervention Field Officer Myrtle Brown (fourth left) and three of Henry's five children.

Peaches Henry (left) expresses gratitude to No-Maddz for visiting and donating to her family.

Marsha Burrell (left), Food For The Poor’s relief development manager, hands single mother Peaches Henry groceries on behalf of the charity organisation.

Sheldon Shepherd, member of No-Maddz group, greets seven-year-old Abigail Reid, and her mother, Peaches Henry, during a surprise visit to the family recently when it was announced that they would get a house from Food For The Poor later this year.

(L)Abigail Reid, seven, smiles as she helps herself to a serving of cornmeal porridge & (R)Six-year-old Omar Reid is embraced by his mother, Peaches Henry.