BY KIMMO MATTHEWS

Observer staff reporter

matthewsk@jamaicaobserver.com

FOOD For the Poor (FFP) has completed construction of a two-bedroom house for

055-year-old Anthony Anderson, who has been single-handedly raising five children since gunmen shot and killed members of his family in Tredegar Park, St Catherine, in 2010.

“The plight of Mr Anderson was brought to the attention of our chairman (Andrew Mahfood). We felt that there was really a need to provide some help,” Ron Burgess, senior director of recipient services at FFP, told the Jamaica Observer on Monday. “We thought it was very appropriate that we should provide this assistance.”

In August 20, armed thugs went on a rampage in the St Catherine community where they shot, hacked and stabbed to death eight people from two separate families.

Anderson’s common-law wife Hopelin Dennis, 43; the couple’s daughter Angel, 11; Dennis’ 24 -year-old daughter Neksisia, and her son, Joey, 16, were among the victims in the attack that sent shockwaves across the country.

The two adult women left behind five children, one of them was three-years-old at the time of the incident.

“Since that time I have been left as their (the children’s) only source of help. Things very difficult at times, but I just have to carry on,” said Anderson, whose plight was highlighted by the Observer in 2013.

Anderson said his situation would get so difficult at times to the point where he often felt like giving up. He was forced to sleep in an unfinished building with the children left in his care.

However, he admitted on Monday that the donation of the house will do a lot to ease his pain.

“I really want to say a big thank you to Food for the Poor, because if it wasn’t for them I would not have somewhere to stay, and also to the Jamaica Observer for highlighting my plight,” said a grateful Anderson, noting that the next step is to get some funds to purchase needed furniture.

Burgess, meanwhile, said that in its 30-year history, the FFP has constructed a total of 38,000 housing units islandwide, including 1,061 last year.

Burgess said, in moving forward, the FFP would continue to reach out to those in need but needs more support from “corporate foundations” to strengthen its efforts.