(Jamaica Gleaner) At 45 years old, mother of nine and grandmother of 10, Susan Burke* finds herself begging on the streets of the capital city to provide for her household.
Up to March this year, the Trench Town resident had been working as a janitor but lost her job shortly after the coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, surfaced on local shores.
“Since the COVID, dem tell me nuffi come back to work,” she told The Gleaner yesterday as she shared her plight. “Mi want likkle help. Mi nuh know how mi survive. It come in like mi turn pauper. Me never used to beg, but me all a beg $100 and $50.”
She explained that of the five fathers of her children, only the dad of her youngest child is still alive. The others fell victim to gun violence in the tough Kingston community.
The tentacles of COVID-19 economic crunch have also gripped the surviving dad, who has also lost his job and is unable to provide continuous support for his son.
Latest poverty figures contained in the Jamaica Survey of Living Conditions show that the poverty rate in the Greater Kingston Metropolitan Area fell by 8.5 percentage points to of 9.2 per cent in 2018. However, with COVID-19 pounding the global economy, economist fear that many more families could be forced into poverty. Studies have also shown that poor household have been disproportionately affected by job losses caused by the pandemic.
Burke’s minimum wage used to stretch a far way, she told The Gleaner, helping her children and grandchildren even with four of her own still enrolled in school.
Relies On Charity
Now unemployed, she relies entirely on charity to set the dinner table for the 10 persons living under the roof of her dilapidated house and her daughter Latoya*’s family of six metres away in the same yard. When things get really tough, they try a team approach to ensure that the children are fed if everyone can’t have a bite.
Latoya and one of her younger sisters, Carmen*, said that in the past, they have had to resort to prostitution to provide for their families, but that has now stopped, partly because of COVID.
Latoya, who has four children, said it was necessary for survival although she lives with the father of two of her children.
The 30-year-old said that since she has stopped working the streets, she has been trying to sell bag juice as she wagers meagre resources for a chance to win the lottery.
Though prostitution brought in more money, Latoya said that some clients requested too much of her. On the other hand, Carmen said she was jolted by the risk.
“Is really not about the wrong thing what you are doing enuh,” she told The Gleaner. “It’s the risk you are taking with your life, but [because of] needs and wants, you have to out there, but we haffi pray by the mercy of God nutten no reach wi.”
The mothers lamented their inability to provide devices for their children to participate in online schooling, now that classes have moved into the virtual space because of COVID-19.
They fear that without classes to hold their attention and keep them inside, their children could wander and get caught in the crossfire as gun violence is common to the area. They said that in times gone by, gunmen and police have walked through their yard with weapons in hand, scaring the children.
