Thanks, but we need more help
Fire victim
mom of 10 makes appeal for food, clothes
BETHEL TOWN, Westmoreland
At 35, and after giving birth to her
10th child last week, Authrine
Clarke is convinced that she has had
enough.
 The
slender framed mother of three boys
and seven girls, with ages ranging
from one week to 20 years - and who
is also a grandmother - earlier this
week made an appointment at a local
hospital to undergo tubal ligation.
The surgery, she hopes, will be done
early next month.
It's not easy, though, to fathom why
Clarke had waited for so long to
make that bold move.
After all, she has, for quite some
time now, been finding it extremely
difficult to make ends meet.
Living with eight of her children
under one roof, with, she said,
little assistance from their two
fathers and no steady source of
income, it's difficult to understand
how the family survives.
Apart from the fact that her eldest
daughter, Kerine, 19, occasionally
braids hair for a small fee, none of
her children are employed.
According to Clarke, the family has
been surviving on the generosity of
relatives, friends and well-wishers.
"People help us from time to time,
and sometimes we get a little money
from doing hair," she told the
Observer West.
Things, however, took a turn for the
worse for the poverty-stricken
family on Saturday, May 17, when
fire completely destroyed the
three-bedroom board house they
occupied in the small, rustic Bethel
Town community.
Despite frantic efforts that night
by neighbours to save the family's
belongings, everything was
destroyed, as the fire spread
quickly to engulf the wooden
structure.
Clarke, who was then seven months
pregnant, watched helplessly as the
family's personal belongings went up
in smoke.
Within 24 hours of the blaze, Clarke
went into what medical personnel
described as 'stress-induced labour',
and subsequently delivered another
daughter.
The family has since been relocated
to a two-room concrete structure in
the Castle Mountain area of Bethel
Town and is said to be in dire need
of help.
The house, Clarke told the Observer
West, was 'given' to them by a
concerned citizen until they can
afford to move elsewhere.
But the dwelling lacks a number of
essential amenities.
There is no running water, no
electricity, no sanitary
conveniences and no kitchen.
That aside, the family is
desperately in need of food and
clothing.
"Right now, we need some food and
clothes and some beds because there
are now eight of them (children)
sleeping in one bed," she told the
Observer West, during a visit to
their new home on Tuesday.
But despite the family's dilemma,
Clarke is grateful for the
assistance they have been receiving
since the fire.
"I am thankful to God for what we
have been given," she said, sporting
a broad smile. "People have given us
clothes, pots, a stove, plates, some
food and two beds."
In the meantime, she is hoping that
representation made on her behalf by
member of Parliament for the area,
Luther Buchanan, to the Ministry of
Labour and Social Security, as well
as to Housing Minister Dr Horace
Chang for assistance, will bear
fruit.
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