Men on Mission (MoM) on Sunday donated a new house to a Berbice single mother, Yamanie Bepot.
For more than 13 years, Bepot – a single mother of three, had been living in dilapidated zinc shack, with leaks in the roof and walls, at Ordnance Fortlands, East Canje, Region Six, (East Berbice-Corentyne).
Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha handing over the keys to the new building to Yamanie Bepot while Samantha Reid of SAWA and a representative of GAICO looks on
It was a house where rainwater seeped in, leaving puddles on the floor which encouraged visitors including snakes.
The keys to her new home were handed over on Sunday by Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha, a resident of Region Six, on behalf of President Dr Irfaan Ali. The Minister noted that there are many corporate sponsors working with MoM.
“This is just another example where the Government is looking at ways to assist people who are living in vulnerable situations. The Government does have a robust housing programme. Over 35,000 house lots have already been distributed for the last four years. This is another programme to assist vulnerable people in the community,” Mustapha said.
Mustapha applauded the two companies that partnered to construct the home, SAWA Investments and GAICO, noting that the Government has been partnering with private sector to assist communities and individuals.
In late December, Bepot’s living situation was made public through the media, and MoM intervened through Samantha Reid of SAWA and Komal Singh of GAICO.
Bepot and her husband rented a house and were living there. However, when she became pregnant with her third child, the couple decided that they wanted their own home.
They approached her husband’s uncle who gave them the land and they built the zinc shack to live.
However, before the paper work for the real estate could be done, the uncle passed away and tragically, just a short while after Bepot’s husband fell ill and subsequently passed away, leaving her with three children and no rights to the land she was living on.
However, after her story was made public, the Government intervened, and through MoM she now owns the land on which her new home was built.
Mustapha while noting that the new building will provide some amount of comfort for Bepot and her children, committed the donours to assist with providing some furnishing.
Managing Director of SAWA, Samantha Reid, said she was honoured to be able to support the MoM inattentive, noting that this is the second such project she has undertaken with the first being in Linden, Region Ten (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
“My team worked for two weeks to build this house and it was well built and should be well received,” she said, while thanking GAICO for coming onboard with her company.
MoM is the brain child of President Dr Irfaan Ali with the aim of improving the lives of single parents, pensioners, persons with disabilities victims of disasters.
