‘Mi happy suh til’ - Clarendon mother featured by THE STAR gets decent house

When this newspaper interviewed Nicola Williams last January, she was moved to tears as she lamented the living condition. At the time she was living in a run-down shack with four of her six children. The dwelling, which had galvanised sheeting as its walls barely had enough space for the occupants. The floor was all dirt and a sheet of tarpaulin that captures the rainwater hung from the ceiling.

Shortly after her story was published, representatives from the New Social Housing Programme (NHSP) made contact with Williams. The process of transforming her life had begun.

"Dem tell mi say dem see mi story in the newspaper and Mr [Prime Minister Andrew] Holness tell dem to come and look for me. Mi uncle gave me the piece of land and we wait for a while and dem start build. When mi see seh the house start build, mi happy suh til. Mi seh dis is a dream come true," Williams.

On Friday, Holness presented the 36-year-old with the keys to a three-bedroom house in Banana Ground, Clarendon. The unit was built under the NSHP, which was established in 2018 to improve the living conditions of Jamaica's most vulnerable citizens by providing quality, affordable and sustainable housing.

"I feel happy and I feel good, and the children excited bad," Williams told THE STAR yesterday.

The life-changing development may not have been possible without the help of Pauline Givans, principal of an early childhood institution in Bloomwell district, Clarendon, where the mother lived.

"No human is supposed to be living in the condition that she is," Givans said last January as she brought this newspaper's attention to Williams' plight.

Yesterday, a grateful Williams thanked "everyone" who played a role in ensuring her living conditions improved. She jogs her memory to the days when she had to live with four of her children in a cramp dirt floor one-room shack.

"It did hard for me because no one was giving me anything, and mi did have to go out and wash people dirty clothes to take care of the children. When we use to in the [old] house, we use to have to set buckets on the bed [whenever it rains]. A lot of the times mi have to wait until the rain done fall before mi can cook. Other times I have to carry the coal stove in the house when mi a cook, and a did just one broken down bedroom," she said.

"When rain a fall mi have to put the children on the bed and tell them stay there because the rain a run right through the house. Mi use to use a tarpaulin to try shelter off some of the rain but that never work all the time," Williams added

Despite getting the keys to the house Williams is yet to sleep in it because she does not have any furniture. She, however, hopes to furnish it soon so that she can enjoy the comfort of her own house. She has pledged to do her best to take care of the structure, adding that securing a decent job would be icing on the cake.

"Mi wouldn't mind mi get a farmwork ticket so mi can go look it for mi children," Williams said.