Tanya Stephens helping to uplift poor Clarendon woman

Recording artiste Tanya Stephens is hoping that her partnership with Food For The Poor (FFTP) will serve as encouragement to others to support charitable ventures.

Stephens, the These Streets singjay, was speaking on-site at Anderson Town, Clarendon, where FFTP and BOOM Energy Drink gifted a two-bedroom house to Evadney Johnson, a mother of five who was homeless for 11 years.

"Me have a name and a presence, which is valuable to getting attention. People pay public figures mind and it gives us an opportunity fi use da attention deh to some good," she said.

Stephens, who grew up in Richmond, St Mary, told THE STAR that her personal experiences with poverty influenced her to join in on the effort.

"Me come from people weh never have it. When me a grow up, we never have it and me would a wish we did get some help. If my presence can bring awareness and can get some attention and bring some people on board, then me willing. I am getting involved because it's necessary. This is the only way we survive as a species ... as a community ... it's [by] working together. We a fi help one another," she said.

Johnson is the FFTP campaign's Women's Month recipient. Four of her children are currently living with relatives across three different parishes, as she is unable to provide proper shelter and support for them. He story has touched persons such as Stephens.

"Me like fi be a part of what makes somebody life better, because me know wah it feel like fi have a life weh worse, and me know what it feels like fi go a bed hungry, so me get involved from a personal perspective. My mother put on a pot of water and throw seasoning in deh and make it boil so the neighbour them think we a cook, and then we drink some a dah broth deh and go a we bed," she shared.

Existing discomforts

The St Mary High school alumna shared that there were days she had to go to school without lunch, an unfortunate situation compounded by the existing discomforts at home, having shared a one-bedroom structure with six other people.

"Me know say me poor when me nuh have no lunch money fi go school and me a fi siddung a pipe, drink some water and go back a class. [The house] never comfortable; there was no space. The only time we really spend in there is when we a guh sleep, because it never have enough room fi wi socialise," she said.

Speaking on the kind of satisfaction she gets from being able to offer help to others, Stephens said, "The little girl in a me feel proud that the person weh me would a like fi see come to my rescue as a kid, me get a chance to be that person to somebody else. Me cyaa do a lot but every little thing me can do, I do. And me a invite people fi do that too."