Pawan Outar will celebrate her birthday on Thursday homeless and as she puts it, “without any clothes on my back” after a fire completely destroyed her two-storey home at Mon Repos, East Coast yesterday morning.
Sheltering at a friend’s home with her 11-month-old son, Shivraj, Pawan said she is facing Christmas with added hardship because she was paying a mortgage on the home. “I bought it last August,” she said after which she sighed and explained that she is a single mother who fights every day to provide for her baby. The child’s father left her when she was four months pregnant.
Pawan recalled leaving home and receiving a call around 7.30 am that her house at Martha’s Ville, Mon Repos was on fire, she arrived a few minutes later to see the home covered in flames. The fire service showed up but was unable to save anything.
“I would accept any assistance, anything because I lost everything,” Pawan said before her voice broke. She said too that her son will celebrate his first birthday on December 29 and they will both be counting on the kindness of strangers. Pawan operates a stall at the Mon Repos market, but was forced to leave her business “for now”, according to her to stay at a friend at Mahaica.