7 News Belize

Yabra Residents Living In Tents
posted (October 28, 2010)
Hurricane Richard hit 96 hours ago - and our teams on the ground are reporting tonight that relief supplies are beginning to flow in to one community we've stayed very close to and that is the Yabra area.

But, don't get us wrong, this is no magic wand solution - from even before the storm this was a desperately marginalized community and when Richard tore through the area it was like laying bare the social equivalent of a can of worms.

And so even though help is starting to come in - the problems persist and the story is about when poverty and natural disaster combine to create desperation. I found out how bad it's gotten for three men who are now living in tents:…

Two days ago we introduced you to these three men who lost everything when the storm destroyed the seaside shacks they called home.

They have gone from homeless to living in tents…

Emilio Rivera, living in a tent
"This is what I am living in right now and the little things that I save is in there, nothing else I don't have."

Their few possessions collected nearby - This is where spartan meets subhuman. And there's no relief in sight for these gentlemen because the place they called home was in the middle of a street:

Terry Andrewin, living in a tent
"We were asking the people for help. Some people from the ministry of health came here and they say that they will help us build a house. They took down our names, they came back and told us that they can't help us because we live on the street and that we have to move from here. They are telling us to move but we don't have anywhere else to rest our head right now. We were saying that if they didn't want to help us, we would go ahead and build up back our house, but now they don't want us to build our house, they want us to move from here because they are telling us that this is a street. We don't know what to tell them about that now."

Monica Bodden
"How long have you been living here?"

Terry Andrewin, living in a tent
"I live here for 4 years and my cousin is living here for 13 years."

Monica Bodden
"And you never had problems with anybody telling you...."

Emilio Rivera, living in a tent
"No kind of problems. I live here like 13 years ago and from since I build here nobody; no ministers come here to tell me about here being a street. They say that they don't mind building house but that they can't build it here. But we don't have any other land to build a house."

And while that is a long term problem, in the short term, how do they manage living in a tent?

Monica Bodden
"Walk me through your night here. I don't even see a sheet to cover."

Emilio Rivera, living in a tent
"Well that is how we have to do it right now."

Monica Bodden
"You sleep on the bare ground?"

Terry Andrewin, living in a tent
"We barely sleep sometime at night because when the dog barks we have to peep out to see what is happening. From the weather came we are trying to work and we barely rest to try and put up back our house. Now they don't want us to put up back our house. What do they want us to do?"

And that's the thing these men say they don't have many alternatives

Emilio Rivera, living in a tent
"Now they are looking to put me back in the streets. They want me to live back the life that I once lived because if I go back in the streets and I don't have a house to live what will I have to do? I will have to live the street life like how all rude boy normally live it."

Terry Andrewin, living in a tent
"It's like what he is saying we were never any good person in society but we are trying to change our life to make an effort in our lives to stay out of trouble and with our house destroy we don't have anywhere to stay, and they want to put us back on the streets. It is just hard and rough for us but we are trying our best to stand up but if they want us here then where are we to go?"

They say they want somewhere to live:

Emilio Rivera, living in a tent
"We are Belizean and we are not animals, we are human beings like everybody else, we deserve a piece of land. If they say that we cant live here then they are the government, they have rights to say that they will put you somewhere else and let us to settle there."

And everywhere we turned there were hard luck stories like that - probably none quite as sad as Joshua who has hydro-encephalitis - known as water head -he showed us he could count to ten in English and Spanish.

Joshua
"4,5,6,7,8,...10. Siete, ocho, nieve..diez."

I took him for a walk - but that is only one bright spot in a day - it's when the night comes that this child sleeps with his family in this cluttered, congested space still flooded with black water.

Their yard still over-run with muck and water.

The situation is even worse for Imogene Trapp who weathered the storm in Gales Point and came back to find only her floor intact:

Monica Bodden
"You had no idea when you heard about this hurricane. You were in Gales Point, you were trap? What was the situation?"

Imogene Trapp
"I got trap, I couldn't come home because there were no transportation. Just yesterday morning I came home. When I came home this is what I met. Everything just gone for me."

Monica Bodden
"You didn't meet anything? Just these broken up....."

Imogene Trapp
"No bed or nothing we didn't find, just a flooring right there. Nothing didn't save."

Monica Bodden
"So where the floor is that was your house?"

Imogene Trapp
(noddded head)

Monica Bodden
"So what was your first reaction when you came back and see this?"

Imogene Trapp
"I just bawl out because I don't left with anything, everything just gone."

Monica Bodden
"Where do you go from here?"

Imogene Trapp
"I don't know. From yesterday I am just stressed out and I don't know what to do, I don't know where to go."

Monica Bodden
"You have a six year old son?"

Imogene Trapp
"Yes. He lost everything for school. Nothing he didn't left with, school bag, tennis and everything gone for him too."

And help is coming in - today we saw a supply truck coming in an ordered, regimented distribution of relief supplies. With records diligently kept the follow up to needs assessment visits made earlier in the week - and storm-affected families left with sacks of supplies slung over their shoulders.

Also on Faber's Road, we saw the department of human services and UNICEF were delivering food parcels and sleeping mats to families - and all the families signed that they had received something.

Chicken was being prepared for cooking at the yabra community center - but help can't come soon enough for these folks…

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