Beyond grateful - Marva Dias looks forward to peaceful nights during rainy season

Gordon Pen resident Marva Dias was last Friday presented with a gift of a home, courtesy of the Government of Jamaica.

Dias, who previously lived in a dilapidated house with her son and granddaughter, was the recipient of a two-bedroom house, which was built under the New Social Housing Programme. It was built at a cost of $4.3 million.

Now under a new roof, Dias said that she will sleep well at nights knowing that her family will now stay dry when it rains. She said that the conditions of her previous house were so bad thatshe had no choice but to reach out to her member of parliament, Olivia Grange, for assistance.

"It did rotten down bad, man. It did tear down. The wul a one side did rotten dung so a suh di zinc di deh. A suh comes dem come come look pon it. When rain fall, water run right through it. Dem come, and me show dem di house, and it did inna a terrible state, so mi tell dem say me a beg dem a house," said Dias.

"But mi tell dem say me nuh wah nuh board house. A concrete house mi wah cause when you get board, it rotten down back, so mi nuh wah nuh board," she added.

Dias, who was a market vendor-turned-shopkeeper, will now live in her newly constructed home with her two grandchildren and her daughter.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, speaking at the handover ceremony, said that members of parliament (MP) receive about 100 requests per year for housing assistance from persons living in deplorable conditions. He said that the Government has been providing five social houses in each of the 63 constituencies.

"Today, we are helping one more person to break inter-generational poverty because you ... now have an asset that you can pass on to your children," the prime minister said.

For her part, Olivia Grange, MP for St Catherine Central, said that providing better housing for Dias was one the many good things happening in the constituency.

"We're doing a lot of things in the constituency, but I'm not going to boast about them now. The people in the constituency know that we have other units that will be handed over by the prime minister another time, so I just want to send the word to the other division: your time will come," Grange said.