STANDING in a long line in the boiling sun in full view of passers-by once every two months to collect a cheque valued between $1,300 and about $7,000 might seem like a whole lot of trouble, but for a number of women in Jamaica, it is the means of survival.

The Sunday Observer saw first-hand, that struggle for survival on a recent visit to the Hagley Park Road Post Office in St Andrew. Scores of women stood outside, while others crammed inside, eager to collect their cheques from the Programme for Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH).

And though the wait is long and the cheques meagre, the women endure for, as is the case with many of them, it is the only steady source of income.

“It not so bad. It help,” said 40-year-old Waterhouse resident Charmaine Watson who has two children of school age. “It can buy little food and give them (the children) lunch money.”

Canesha Haricha, a mother of five, agreed with Watson. “It good to me and them (children) still, because it help me to send them to school. Ah nuh nothing much, but it can gwaan because at least it can buy little something,” she said.

Since her youngest and her eldest children do not have birth certificates – a PATH prerequisite – she said she only receives $4,030 for three of her children every two months. She uses it to provide lunch money for school and to buy groceries for the household.

Like many of the ladies with whom the Sunday Observer spoke, Haricha does not have a steady job. Instead, she designs costumes and styles hair and nails when carnival rolls out each year.

“Mi nuh get through with no work at all, although I try look,” she said. “You know seh for them work here nowadays, you have to have certificates and degree and write up CV (curriculum vitae) and them things there.”

Haricha is part of the 14 per cent of the population – according to the 2006 Jamaica Survey of Living Conditions – that is below the poverty line and which is therefore eligible for PATH. The 2007 survey recorded a reduction of five percentage points but PATH continues to use 14.

She, like many others in this group, does not have access to a shower or a flush toilet, things considered basic amenities.

“Fi tell you the truth, you know mi nuh live nowhere, mi just live inna one little room with the five of them. The three big one dem father dead and the father for the two little ones nuh live with me so him nuh really pay dem nuh mind,” she said.

She said the father of her eldest children was murdered in rural Jamaica 10 years ago when gunmen held up and robbed the truck on which he was working. The father of her youngest children had invited her to live with him at a Kingston 11 address, where she still lives, even though he has left.

People living in poverty like Haricha and Watson are who PATH seeks to help. Currently there are 329,000 beneficiaries on the programme and because each household is allowed to have up to 6 beneficiaries, there are 121,000 families. In April of last year, there were approximately 316,000 beneficiaries.

The main target groups for PATH are pregnant or lactating women, children up to six years of age, the elderly, the disabled, and students between six and 18 years. The minimum payment made to a beneficiary is $650 per month and the most is $1,100, given to boys in grades 10-13 who can prove that they have gone to school 85 per cent of the attendable days. Girls in this category, as with all the other categories of students under PATH, are given 10 per cent less than boys since research has shown higher attendance rates for girls in comparison to boys.

While the student payments increase based on the grades they are in, adults – including pregnant and lactating mothers – receive a fixed payment of $650 each month. According to PATH project director, Dunscan Bryan, students were also getting a fixed sum up until December of last year.

But those receiving the minimum payment have also seen an increase as up to last year April, each beneficiary was getting $530. As such, a household of three boys and one girl, two of whom are of primary school age and two of secondary school age, would now get about $6,700 as opposed to the $5,600 they were getting in 2008.

“Some use their PATH benefits to purchase essentials like flour, sugar and those grocery items to sustain themselves, especially in the single households, and then they depend on other avenues to help them with the things that they need. So they depend on relatives, friends or other organisations like faith-based organisations that distribute food stuff and so on like Food for the Poor

and churches within the communities,” he said.

PATH’s total budget for this year is $3 billion, $2.7 billion of which goes out to beneficiaries, while the remaining $300 million goes towards operating costs. The project is financed with a US$40-million loan from the International Bank

for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), and another from the Inter-American Development Bank valued at US$15 million.

When divided amongst the beneficiaries, the fund doesn’t seem to provide much but Bryan said the aim of the programme was not to satisfy the beneficiaries’ every need.

“It was never envisioned that the PATH benefits would be able to support the life of the individual family because that is not sustainable,” he said.

Those who apply to PATH are given a means test to determine if they are in abject poverty.

“The criteria that we use to qualify you for PATH have to deal with deprivation issues, so for example, if you don’t have flush toilet in your house, the material that makes up your house, the number of people that live in your household, the educational attainment of those who live in your household, whether or not you have certain amenities like electricity, piped water and all those things,” said Bryan.

Fifty-three-year-old Majestic Gardens resident Millicent, who washes people’s clothes for a living, has been on the programme for 10 years now. That was around the time gunmen killed the father of her nine children, who now range from age 10 to 22 years. Only four of her children are on PATH and so she only gets $5600 which she uses to support the entire family.

“It carry me to the supermarket so me can get something to eat,” she said. “It can’t really help me you know, but me have to gwaan satisfy till better come.”

But unfortunately for Millicent, things seem to be getting worse before they get any better. Her house was burnt to the ground on the night of August 6 – Independence Day – and her eldest son was shot to death two weeks ago when violence flared up in the community.

Through the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, she was able to get two mattresses, blankets and grocery items, but with nowhere else to go, she said she and her eight children have been staying with a friend who has made her living room available to them.

“Every night we just put down the two mattress and then in the morning, we take them up and lean them up back,” she said.

Still, she plods on, ensuring her children go to school at least 85 per cent of the time. The alternative is something she just couldn’t afford.