PLANS are afoot to ensure that 14-year-old burn victim Ackalia Dunkley is not homeless when she returns to Jamaica from hospital in the United States.

Dunkley was badly burnt during a gas explosion at her house in Burnt Savannah in St Elizabeth on June 16 and had to be airlifted to Joseph M Still Burn Center in the US for emergency surgeries.

The house that Dunkley lived in was destroyed in the blast and in order to prevent her from returning to Jamaica without a comfortable place to live, Delroy Slowly, member of parliament for St Elizabeth North Eastern, invited Minister of Local Government and Community Development Desmond McKenzie to tour the area where the house is located.

“I invited [the] minister to take a look at the structure. All the windows were blown out. The ceiling caved in. The explosion practically lifted the roof. Had it been a concrete covering, the air would not have been able to escape as quickly and quite possibly, Ackalia would not have been with us. Upon Mr McKenzie’s arrival he saw the extent of the damage and immediately he gave assignment to the technocrats at the Municipality in St Elizabeth to begin the assessment of the replacement cost and that is being done. I am happy that the minister will be ensuring that the structure is better than the original one,” Slowly said, highlighting that he has been one of the main people offering support to Dunkley and her family during this difficult period.

Slowly donated US$5,000 towards Dunkley’s air ambulance fees and was instrumental in getting some of his associates to make contributions as well, to meet the US$45,000 sum that was needed to airlift Dunkley out of Jamaica before her condition worsened.

Following Minister McKenzie’s visit to the home, the Jamaica Information Service reported that he pledged to give Dunkley and her grandmother a new house through Government’s Indigent Housing Programme. The minister was in St Elizabeth to hand over a one-bedroom house under the indigent programme to Shawya Farquharson. The unit which costs $1.8 million includes a kitchenette, bathroom, living area and front porch.

Prior to Dunkley’s case, 13-year-old Adrianna Laing, who lost her three younger brothers and was herself severely burnt in a massive fire that destroyed their house in Westmoreland last year, returned to Jamaica from hospital in the US in March this year and has had to be staying with relatives.

Morland Wilson, the MP for Westmoreland Western where Laing lived, had said that the teen and her family would receive a house under Government’s New Social Housing Programme, a component of the Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment programme.

However, there have been delays as permission was being sought from the owner of the land, before construction could take place.

The Observer made several calls to Wilson to get an update on the situation; however, his phone rang without answer.