Single mother out in the cold after losing house to fire

Sabrina Singh, a single mother of five, is left out in the cold and begs the assistance of the relevant authorities to turn her situation around.

As a domestic worker, she singlehandedly built a home on Long Dam, Cane Grove, East Coast Demerara.

Dispute over the land, which has been reserved by the government, resulted in Singh losing her house to fire.

But even a shanty-styled shelter she reconstructed on a portion of the growing squatter settlement has not brought her the relief she hoped for.

She claims her neighbour is destroying the property in a bid to get her off the land. There have also been several physical altercations and now, Singh is even afraid to be there.

At the weekend, Singh, 37, welcomed the News Room into her home where she lives with three of her five children.

Her home, a dilapidated shack with no flooring, built using the remains of what was once a two-storey house along the dam.

Beside her house are neighbouring ones that replicate what her home once was. Born and raised in the village, Singh started her life on the government reserved land as a way of independence.

“Me and my brother doesn’t really ‘gree when I live with he, he does drink rumand curse up so I tell my mother I gon just go and she said yes.

“I come over here, live in a flat thing and then I start buy things and build a nice 20 by 24 house and had 19 windows. Just the downstairs had to cast but me said me nah go cast it now,” Singh said.

Singh, like many other squatters, hopes that the area will be regularised or she will be able to move when the Government becomes ready to utilise the land.

But tragedy struck the family as their home was destroyed. Singh accuses a resident, who also has a house on the dam, of the village of breaking down her home and setting some furniture on fire. Slowly demolishing the home into nothing but a shed. She claims this person removed wood, beds, hammocks among other items from her house and now claims it as theirs.

“[He] tek all we ration that we have and ker it away, all we bucket, we bench, we hammock, he take it away to his house.

“All we wares everything he take away. Right now his son sleeping on my son’s bed that he [her son] work and buy and my son has to sleep on the ground. We want to work and build back,” Singh said with tears in her eyes.

This house was considered one of the nicest on the dam by a resident: “big and had a kitchen,” the woman said. An odd way to describe a house but given that most houses in these areas have outdoor amenities, Singh’s home was indeed among the good ones.

Singh explained that since the most recent incident happened when she and the resident had an altercation on Monday, September 4, she left her home. This is not the first time she left the house after these encounters and upon returning, a new mattress that was donated to her was destroyed, allegedly by the resident.

It is alleged that he goes into the house and removes the items, making it difficult for Singh to rebuild.

“Me nah got bed, me nah got mattress. People give me a mattress when me come back to make up back my place, he burn out the mattress, my baby’s blanket and the netting. This is every time he doing this,” Singh said.

Anyone who can assist Singh can contact her on 677-5719 or 257-0484.