Three sisters who have spent the past several years living in a house in Annotto Bay, St Mary, which seemed on the verge of collapsing, with a roof which leaks when it rains and no proper sanitary convenience, are finally getting help.

The sisters, Kadian, Simone, and Suzette Pitter, and their 15 children — ages ranging from three months to 17 years old — have been living in squalor for some time and had lost hope of getting any form of assistance to better their living conditions as their appeals for help, over the years, had fallen on deaf ears.

“It was hard waking up to the same terrible condition, everyday, and the kids just kept crying — especially when it rains,” Kadian told the Jamaica Observer North and East.

“We beg and plead, but it was just pure promises and nutting nah happen. The children were getting sick, and we had lost hope of getting any help. My six children and myself was living in a two-bedroom board house which was about to collapse. I have been living here for 33 years and with the rain and sunshine, the structure was rotting away.

“It was one of my in-laws, who decided to approach our MP (Member of Parliament Dr Norman Dunn), but I was convinced that it would just be another promise on their part. And even when we got word that some people would be coming to look at our condition and situation, I still did not expect any help,” added Kadian.

But Dunn listened to the plea for assistance and visited the women at their house.

“I was moved by what I saw and I almost broke down in tears,“ said Dunn, the MP for St Mary South Eastern.

“There is no way that people, especially children, should be living in such inhumane conditions. I immediately committed to assist them without even thinking about what the cost would be like. Fortunately, I received some funding to assist with the construction. When I saw the deplorable condition that they were living in, I just had to intervene,” added Dunn.

Now work is under way on three concrete dwellings for the sisters and their children.

The construction, which is nearing its halfway stage, will see each sister benefiting from two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen area, a dining room, and a verandah.

With the dwelling now taking shape, Kadian is anxiously awaiting the completion, which she says will definitely improve the health of the children who will no longer be exposed to getting wet whenever it rains, neither will there be any fear of them being bitten by centipedes, nor rats which find their way into the dilapidated buildings they now live in.