My children are hungry again!
The cry of 45-year-old Harriett Hackett as she took a breadfruit from a neighbour and made her way into the kitchen to turn it into a meal for her children when they return home from school.
The mother’s story is not new to readers as her undesirable circumstances were highlighted in an article published in Barbados TODAY on March 18 where she asked for help with feeding and clothing her children.
She told Barbados TODAY this afternoon that she was still struggling to feed her little ones.
Immediately following publication of the article, the Mayers Road, My Lord’s Hill, St Michael family, whose home is also in dire need of repairs, received help in the form of food, clothing and even money from kind hearted Barbadians locally and abroad.
At that time, the unemployed mum said that though she was relentlessly trying to find a job, she had not worked “in years”. Today, she is still searching.
Harriett Hackett
“I looking for work, of course, but I can’t find none up to now. Anything anybody can give me to do, I would be glad for,” the mother said.
Now weeks later, Hackett said while she was thankful for the help last time, she was once again in the same position of hardly having anything to feed her children, the eldest being 20 (not living with her) and the youngest five.
“I don’t have anything for the children to eat. All the vouchers and all the food stuff gone.
“I still want help with food stuff and things because the children does eat a lot and I does still get trouble feeding them. Right now who could carry to school lunch will get and if there ain’t no more, the rest won’t get,” the soft-spoken mother said in a frank tone.
In the article, Hackett had pointed out a home lacking proper furniture where some of the children must sleep on a sponge laid out on the floor of a clustered bedroom.
In an effort for the children to sleep in comfort, the mother said she removed the partition separating the bedroom and the living room to accommodate them.
But she said the fact remained that the area was still cramped and proved to be uncomfortable for her little charges.
“My children would still fight for the beds because it only got three beds and all of them want this space and that space,” she explained.