(Trinidad Guardian) At the base of a hill at Basta Hall, Couva, lies a leaking, galvanise hovel occupied by four mentally challenged siblings and a six-year-old relative. Their lopsided shack is minus beds, electricity and furniture. Since their father Prakash Mangaroo went missing on July 30, the five have faced many difficulties in making ends meet. Mangaroo, 58, was last seen outside a club at Chaguanas where he worked. Each passing day, Mangaroo’s children, Radesh Mangaroo, 28, Angela Mahabir, 26, Sanjay Mangaroo,13, Naresh Mangaroo, 16 and Angela’s son Kumar, six, pray for his return. The siblings have also appealed to the police to help locate their father. Sanjay, a student of Milton Presbyterian School in Couva, believes his father is being held hostage. “We hearing all kinds of things. Someone tell us that they chop him and kill him,” Sanjay said. Although the teenager is at the age to attend secondary school, he is not yet beyond fourth standard. Sanjay, who says he knows neither his age nor birthday, is forced to walk to school, as the family has little money. His sister Angela does the household chores. But with no running water, dirty clothes often pile up.
Her younger brother Naresh works on a chicken farm to assist his sister and brothers.
In the house there’s the putrid smell of dog filth. Dingy clothes hang from the rusting galvanise fences and plastic bottles, buckets and broken wares litter the dirt floor. A shaky table is covered with dirty pots and pans. On a tabletop stove were two pots; one with black coffee and another with boiled macaroni. Appealing for a proper home, Angela said; “It is hard living here because when it rains the entire house gets muddy. We have to wear boots to get inside here.”
She added that the mattress on which they sleep also gets drenched. Neighbours who often give food to the siblings have also expressed concern regarding Mangaroo’s disappearance.
They believe he did not abandon his children, as he had been taking proper care of them since his wife died with hypertension complications. One neighbour, Chanardaye Seelochan, said four of the children are mentally challenged and need urgent medical attention. “The little boy is always urinating himself. He cannot help it. “The older boy thinks he is five years old. They do not know how to speak properly. When they wake up in the morning, they have no food,” Seelochan said. Saying she often supplied them with water, Seelochan said it is customary for all of the siblings to wear the same clothes for a month.
