28-y-o mom of five from Bartons provides update on life-changing experience

Two months on the 28-year-old Bartons mother of five children said since Old Harbour News highlighted her plight, life has been changing for the better.

International charity Food for the Poor has committed to building Russell a two-bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, living room and verandah home with work set to commence next week. Furniture will be provided as well.

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Representatives from the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) contacted her after reading her heart-wrenching story and are scheduled to visit the family home in northern Old Harbour with a view of adding the children to the government programme.

Not to mention the many Jamaicans from here and abroad who were touched by her story and assisted in cash as well as kind.

The kids are in school, she tells Old Harbour News in an update.

She also operates a backyard poultry farm made possible by the outpouring of love from those ‘Good Samaritans’ who have placed her in a position to take better care of the children.

During our interview, Russell was pulling down the old dilapidated part zinc, part board shack that she and her children called home for many years. It’s a sign of better days ahead.

But she has one small problem at the moment.

“Mi affi do my part. Dem (Food for the Poor) se mi affi build the retaining wall, right. So a it mi affi do,” Russell told Old Harbour News.

A retaining wall is crucial in maintaining the integrity of the house about to be built but falls outside of the scope of the charity organization. She has already started but said she needs at least six bags of cement to complete the reinforcement.

“So I have to get that done so dem (Food for the Poor) can do weh dem fi do,” Russell added.

Russell, twice pregnant as a teen, is grateful for the help received so far, which she said makes sleeping at nights better while awaiting her new home.

The new house would have been far advanced, she believes, if she had the funds to accelerate the constructions of the retaining wall.

“If mi did get this done mi would a in a di house a’redi,” she said.

“When they did call me they said in three weeks time the house suppose to be here, but when the contractor come and see the land he said the wall affi build, and now a two weeks gone out of the three now. So it’s urgent that mi get this finish so they can come.

“Mi get help from somebody and yesterday mi buy five bag a cement and 1 ½ yds sand and one yard a gravel. So di only thing mi would a want a six bag a cement and some water.”

Editor’s Note: If you want to help Sabrina Russell call 876 209 1694.