David Price (left), legal secretary at Food For the Poor Incorporated, chats with 81-year-old Francela Suarez (right), who has been working at Bernard Lodge since 1938, after she received the keys to her home in the Eileen Mary Village, Phoenix Park, St. Catherine. Looking on are Eileen Price (left background) and Robin Mahfood, president and chief executive officer at Food For the Poor. - RICARDO MAKYN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
SPANISH TOWN, St. Catherine:
THE LIVES of several residents in the Phoenix Park area of St. Catherine have been made better with the handing over of 46 housing units valuing $15 million, through the effort of the Food For the Poor and Sugar Company of Jamaica Limited (SCJ).
Richard Azan, State Minister in the Ministry of Housing, Transport and Works, told the gathering at yesterday's handing over ceremony that companies like Food For the Poor would always allow people to feel that there was hope.
Mr. Azan said politicians need to care for people and respect them, not only when they are looking for votes. He said that they should be compassionate, as each empowered Jamaican helps to build the country.
Livingston Morrison, chief executive officer of the SCJ, said that it was a step in the right direction and that the more than 7,500 sugar workers would feel proud to know that persons in the industry were benefiting in a positive way.
While echoing Mr. Azan's sentiments, Mr. Morrison said he went to Duckensfield in St. Thomas almost two years ago and was almost moved to tears after observing the squalor in which workers were living. He said he was haunted by what he had seen for three weeks.
"I feel a sense of pride that persons who contribute to sugar can live in a better environment, and there are several more such ventures to be forged between the SCJ and Food For the Poor," he said.
THINGS LOOK MUCH BETTER NOW
Carol Campbell, one of the housing recipients who expressed their appreciation, said: "Things look much better here now, than where we are coming from. I was born here 27 years ago and the condition was bad. I know that this looks much better."
Robin Mahfood, president of Food For the Poor, said his organisation would continue to work to make the lives of people better, but stressed that the organisation has been faced with difficulties acquiring land on which to build.
