For the past month, Belize City resident Caroline Hamilton and her family have been having a very bad go of it after their house burnt down on Aloe Vera Street Extension. She's been going around trying to seek assistance to build a new home, and since she's not having much luck, she and her common-law husband have been forced to live in the remains of what used to be her home.
That's below any standard of living, and today, our news team visited them to see firsthand what they've had to endure just to avoid sleeping on the street. Daniel Ortiz has that report:
Caroline Hamilton - Fire Victim
"I don't have anywhere to live with my kids. The situation is, I live in a frame that used to be my home."
Daniel Ortiz reporting
That's this bit of charred remains. It once was the home of Caroline Hamilton, her 3 kids, and her common-law husband.
Now, it's just a frame made of burnt wood, structurally unstable and ready to collapse at any moment.
The floor has big holes in it that were burnt out, and so pieces of wood and zinc roofing were placed over them so that persons can walk pass without being hurt.
This little room is where Hamilton sleeps alone. It's wholly inadequate, made of few scraps of old wood, and cloth tightly nailed together like a tent.
Her common-law husband sleeps on this piece of sponge. Their living room and kitchen have now joined together to become a sort of open verandah.
As a result, they are fully exposed to the elements, to mosquitos and other bugs, to whatever animals one finds in urban areas, to the elements such as rain, and a lack of privacy, since there are no walls on the frame.
It's a demeaning degradation of human dignity that no one should have to endure to avoid living on the streets. But, simply put, Hamilton and her common-law have nowhere else to go.
Caroline Hamilton - Fire Victim
"I used to sleep at my mother's, but the house is so small. I would leave my children there and I would try to build a home for me to stay. It hurts to know that I used to have and I don't have anymore."
As one would expect, it is hard living here.
Caroline Hamilton - Fire Victim
"When I come home, it's devastating because all I see is a frame. I don't see any life here. I don't have anywhere to say I have a home."
Kent Vernon - Fire Victim
"Sometimes late at night I don't sleep, because it's not cased up and there's bushes so there's mosquitos that are like another enemy so, I have to stand firm for those too. Sometimes I would jump up too because of the mosquitos. If shop is not out there, here's my fish [holding orange peels]."
Daniel Ortiz
"That's what you use to chase the mosquitos?"
Kent Vernon - Fire Victim
"Yes, see my kitchen top there. There is lots of that up there just to dry and when it does that's what I use to light at night."
Caroline Hamilton - Fire Victim
"It feels frustrating sometimes I don't know what to do. I just sit down and cry. When my baby came home and asked me, 'mommy where will we sleep?' I said. 'You will sleep at granny's' but they would say, 'I don't want to sleep at granny's, I want to come home.'"
Kent Vernon - Fire Victim
"The way I see it, the way I am living is not a proper foundation not even for the kids. If you are blazing a little fire and the kids smell that won't it affect them? Suppose you come and live in a house that's already burnt?"
The family told us that they went to every politician they could think of, but all they got was the run-around.
Caroline Hamilton - Fire Victim
"There's been no kind of way to get help. Everywhere I turn there only promises, 'I will do something for you, I will give you a letter to take to make them try build back your house.' That is frustrating Sir."
Kent Vernon - Fire Victim
"I and my little friend go to maybe all of the ministers out there and the little business places would give a little $10 or a $20 but at the end of the day where will that put you? It's for my step children, because when you already walked and come home, you are hungry, they are hungry, what do you think will catch you? And remember children first before you. Children cannot take it like how we can take it. The environment is not good to live in that's all I'm telling you. It's not what we are used to. No one in there good sense would want to live in something like this, like inhaling all the smoke and the ashes. All the clean clothes you leave will have ashes. Right now I appeal to everyone to try reach out to me because I am a hardworking man. Everyone knows I am a fisher man. But the money that I am making I cannot do what I want because as I make something I am thinking about buying a nail but I can't buy a nail because I have to buy some food for the kids."
The family is asking that anyone who can help them replace their home, to just reach out to them.
Caroline Hamilton - Fire Victim
"I am appealing to the public, to the Prime Minister, to please help me. My back is against the wall. Please help me. I need my home."
Anyone who is willing to provide assistance can reach Hamilton at phone number 650-9269. They told us that they appreciate any donation, no matter how small.
