Scotiabank's Ainsworth Leach (left) and carpenter Vivian Smith put the roof on the top of the two-bedroom house for mother of six Terry-Ann Guyah in Hurlock, St James, yesterday. - Photos by Janet Silvera

WESTERN BUREAU:

A small pot of cornmeal porridge sat on a two-burner gas stove and two double beds kissed lovingly because of lack of space. A water and food bucket and an empty fridge half completed the picture of this tiny one-bedroom shack.

Thirty-six-year-old Terry-Ann Guyah and five of her six children live in this one-bedroom board house in Hurlock, St James. They don't know what it feels like to have their own toilet facilities, electricity or piped water. And so it comes easy for them to borrow the neighbours.

The trip next door, however, is no longer necessary because, on Labour Day, the woman who works only two days per week was gifted a brand-new two-bedroom house, equipped with toilet facilities, a kitchenette and even a 'brawta' dining room. The gift came courtesy of the Bank of Nova Scotia and Food for the Poor in collaboration with the Kiwanis Club of Providence.

Tears of joy

With the new house valued at $1 million, Guyah cried openly each time she was asked what difference the change in lifestyle would make to her life.

"My children won't catch anymore cold during the rainy months because of the cold breeze coming through the open joints in the house," she told The Gleaner.

In the last year Guyah, who had her first child at age 13, has been forced to split her children between homes of other family members, causing great instability among her two youngest, aged three and four.

"My children are in disbelief. They can't believe they are moving out of the house they were in," she interjected, while president-elect of the Kiwanis Club of Providence, Dr Doris Channer-Watson, spoke with intimate knowledge of Guyah's life.

"She has always been downtrodden and depressed and has been fending for herself since age 13," Channer-Watson said.

Guyah's mother, who is now deceased, reportedly abandoned her from an early age.

President of Scotiabank, Bruce Bowen, who was on hand to help in nailing boards during the construction of the house, lauded his staff for their altruism and passion for volunteerism.

Some 600 Scotia volunteers were out offering labour, attracting a spend of some $4 million.

"Scotia employees feel proud of the work they are doing," said Bowen, adding that the Hurlock project, one of eight major programmes taken on by the bank yesterday, would not only offer some type of stability to Guyah and her children, but was a good spin-off for the social fabric of the society.

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com

Mother of six, Terry-Ann Guyah (right), and daughter Georgia McLean in their one-bedroom board house in Hurlock, St James.