After Hurricane Lisa, many residents went left without a roof, and some without walls. But for 74-year-old Lorna Nixon, she was left with nothing - not even a plank from the house she'd been living in for decades. Earlier this month, you heard her say that the sea rose up and swept it away, and that now she and her husband were forced to live with her daughter in an uncomfortable situation.
Well, she might not be living there for much longer because, though the kindness of one Belizean/American family, and the Rotary Club of Belize, her new home may be much closer than she thinks.
Courtney Menzies has this story.
You might remember 75-year-old Lorna Nixon and her husband, Ivan Swaso. They've been living near the seaside in the Port Loyola area for over 40 years, until the hurricane destroyed their already dilapidated home.
Two months after the storm, Nixon came to us to plead for help:
Lorna Nixon
"I lost all my clothes them, I lost everything I need, I need all my clothes, all my mattress, everything I lost, everything is gone. So ma'am, I am suffering right now without a house, I am punishing right now, ma'am. I hope I can get a house back right now and I wish God to help me to get back a house and put me in a good nice house and come back to my land again. And I am suffering because back by my daughter, she cuss me up, she going on [bad] with me. I got a hard time now because nobody come out to help me anymore, and nobody come to see me at all. And I am suffering and I need a house very bad ma'am, I want to come back to my place, I live here for many years."
And her pleas were heard by the Peters family, currently living in New York. When Belizean/American, Sandra Peters learnt of Nixon's dilemma, she jumped into action, collaborating with the Rotary Club of Belize to build a new home for Nixon.
Noriko Gamero, PR Chair, Rotary Club of Belize
"We had a family from the US, the Peters family, who saw the story that Channel 7 ran on the Nixon family needing a home and they basically donated the bulk of the funds to help them get a house, a roof over their head. They really reached out to the club in seeing if there was any possibility for a collaboration and there's two ways in which our team is helping. One is, obviously we're comprised of our Rotarians that have very strong skillset so we have engineers and a lot of different people that are volunteering their help for the construction and the design and architectural renderings for a very small 10x20 house, just something very simple and structurally safe for them to be able to live in. And the rest of the members really just contributed in kind in financial help to raise the funds to be able to help this family so we're very grateful that we could help them in a time of need."
So far, the Rotary Club has raised $20,000, but they need $10,000 to get Nixon and her husband into a new home. If you would like to donate, you can contact Rotary at phone number 603-4767.
You can also contact the Rotary Club through their email, prrotarybz@gmail.com.
