With New House, NSHP Beneficiary Looks To Restart Poultry Business

With the keys to a new two-bedroom house provided under the New Social Housing Programme (NSHP) Dorothy Allen is looking forward to a much brighter future.

The mother of four from Sterling Castle in Ewarton, St. Catherine, explained that with the new property she will be able to restart her poultry farming business with the possibility of expanding to pigs and goats.

“I get a place where I can even do more farming. I would like to get some chickens, because I used to raise chicken down there (where she was living) but [termites] eat down the coop and mi just have to get rid of everything,” Ms. Allen said.

“Now I will be able to do some chickens, [and] I can do pigs, even couple goats because I love farming,” she added.

Ms. Allen was one of four beneficiaries – two in St. Catherine and two in Clarendon – who were presented with keys to housing units by Prime Minister, Dr. the Most Hon. Andrew Holness on Friday (May 31).

Expressing gratitude, Ms. Allen recounted her precarious living condition prior to being selected as a recipient of the NSHP.

“Where I was living was a capture place on the train line and when the rain falls, I flood out. So, I welcome this house for me and my children dem. I welcome it. God is so good. I feel comfortable already and I don’t live in there yet,” she said.

Over in Shady Grove in Lluidas Vale, where Nadine Forbes cut the ribbon to a three-bedroom house, the mother of 11 shared that she fell on hard times when she had an argument with her father, and she was removed from the home following a court battle.

She said that she moved from house to house until she was told about NSHP.

Ms. Forbes acknowledged the contribution of her son and other family members and friends in enabling her to secure the land to benefit from the programme.

Now, she has a home where six of her children will reside with her.

“I am grateful for what you have done for me and for the others,” Ms. Forbes said to Dr. Holness.

The Prime Minister, in highlighting the transformative nature of the NSHP, noted that it is aimed at ending the cycle of poverty.

“A part of the objective of the programme is to break intergenerational poverty. We are happy with this programme because it has been very effective in terms of targeting people who get the benefit and we are absolutely sure that they need it,” he said.

Dr. Holness commended the recipients for their patience as they go through the various processes from finding and securing the land through to construction.

He noted that many of the beneficiaries participate in the construction of the houses.

“There is a biblical principle that ‘God helps those who help themselves’, and so for this programme there are many with the view that the beneficiary is just there sitting down and waiting. I could say that 90 per cent of the time that is not the case,” he pointed out.

“They are there carrying buckets of cement, helping with sand, carrying food for the workers, encouraging the workers to get it done. So, it is not a situation where we just come and hand over the house and you sit back; that some manna fall from the sky and you just get it. No, the beneficiaries are in pursuit of their own benefits and that is good,” Dr. Holness said.