Struggling to live – Poor St Bess family seeks assistance
… Poor St Bess family seeks assistance
At 18, St Elizabeth native Shakera McKenzie is struggling with three children and desperately needs assistance, and more importantly meaningful advice to save herself further setback.
Her impoverished state has reached a crisis and her children, ages five years, three years and three months, and her siblings, who also live with her, need a clearer outlook on life so as to not make similar mistakes as she did.
She told THE STAR that the father for her first child is deceased. The second is not playing his role. The father for her youngest is credited with supporting his and her other children whenever he is able to do so.
They reside in Seniors Run district in Southfield in the parish. The dwelling is home to five children and two adults including her mother.
Two of the children in the household belong to McKenzie’ mother, Carlene Smith.
However, they all rely heavily on Smith’s mother, Carmen Copeland, 68, who lives a chain away.
Copeland, however, is in need of help herself.
“I put them here. If I could get some help to fix the tank along with some cement and a door that would be good,” said Copeland, who often supplies the family with water and anything else she is able to offer.
The house has two beds, no bathroom, and no electricity.
“We need mattress, water tank, bedding and dem things deh. Mi use candle for light but mi fraid it bun down the place, so when mi phone charge, mi use the phone light because the candle nuh safe with the children,” Smith said.
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Whenever it rains, the entire yard space is flooded because the house is situated directly where the water is channelled to escape.
The kids are barefooted, according to McKenzie, they play in the mud or dirt as pastimes.
Their attendance at school is nothing to be proud of as they lack almost all the essentials, clothing, bags, books, and shoes.
McKenzie told THE STAR that she always wanted to be a nurse and still has those intentions, though not clear how to make the next step. “Nobody nuh come here enuh and none of us don’t work, mommy nor my sister.” The sister she referred to does not live with them, but resides close by and visits when she can.
She says she welcomes any assistance for them to better themselves and live a meaningful life.
Metti me need the info for this family please
Will get it today Sweet
She can be reached at (876) 466-6682.
18 year old three kids? as bad as it sounds I wouldn’t be rushing to give her any money, I can offer some advice though. Abstain from sex preferably, however in life there are always choices so you can choose to tie your tube, use female condom, insist the guy wears condom, take morning after pill if all else fails, just limit yourself to oral only but damn man stop being a burden to other people
Met I don’t mean to be rude but I’m not sorry for this girl. At 18 yrs old she have 3 children. She knew she couldn’t take care of the first child but went on to have 2 more.she is lazy and selfish And a now she realized sey she nuh have nuh light and door and water.she could and spend her time doing some house helper work after she had the first child and try send herself back to school .she is not nice to subject her children to such poor life style. Why she didn’t beg someone to provide her with birth control when she had her first child at age 13??.I’m really sorry for the children and it sad that they have to be living in such poor condition. As for the mother I don’t care for her.I’m really upset when I see these kind of news. I hate to see kids suffer . I have a lot of good clothes and shoes that my kids grow out some or still new .my children are her kids age group .5yrs aND 3yrs . so I will make contact and see what I can do.
I agree and most people will say if we dont want to help then dont say anything. I truthfully believe that the father for the last one doesnt do anything either but because she is most likely still sleeping with him then she says he tries. Im pretty sure that her situation was at least similar to this all along and she continued to have children. How nice would it be for me to live my life carelessly and have other people come in and pick up the slack.You know how many people bust their a** working full time jobs and cant make the repairs or upgrades they want to their house? It is an unfortunate situation for the children, but helping someone like this will only make the situation worse because she is likely to continue to live carelessly if she knows people will feel sorry for her and give her a handout.
I will contact her also, she is from St Bess my dad parish. THX Simplicity for her number I will give her call later, and c what I can help her with.
Did she f**k ah bush or on banana trash? It wasn’t too dark to stuff 3 different koki in her hole? Anyway children are blessings
That is indeed a ruff tuff 18yrs showing on her face and body. We pray she gets the desperate help she NEEDS at this time!
I understand that to be poor is a crime, but damn it man, from she have the first two pickney dem, and she see say times hard and nutten nah gwaan fe har and har family, why go have sex without a condom fe a next man and go breed again? Yow my girl,Toni Braxton say yu fe BREATHE AGAIN, not BREED AGAIN. Cho claat, yow, dem ting ya get mi parro yu know man! Right ya now at only 18 years old, she should be praying fe an easy life, instead she haffe a pray fe de strength to endure a difficult one – which could have been avoided! Jah know star, a de 3 children dem mi really sorry fa, because a dem a suffer, and it’s so freaking unfair to them!
Everybody life travel in a different direction. One thing I have come to understand in life is that everybody’s life is exactly as it should be, so even this that appears to be a mess of epic proportions, is her life as it should be. Perhaps she is one of those overcoming great hardship to triumph stories. We can only see with human eyes, which is seeing very much at all.
Sorry to say when you have the first one didn’t you know life was hard ?sorry I’m not sorry for you
Met can u verify the number simplicity posted ? Is that the correct # for this young woman ? I would love to help and so would my mom. I need an address . How come no address posted ?
And to the chatty chatty ignorant people we do NOT need to hear she is 18 and have three children. They are already here .
Today I just mailed a box with about 12 sneakers and clothes to some kids in a village in the Caribbean. Mind you, I sent it Express and big brand name… I REGRET I did not know about this girl earlier. Those sneakers would have gotten her three barrels of food…and she would have been glad for any shoes … But next time .
What is the Jamaican government doing for its citizens with the exceptions of pimping tourist ?
People think about it, she was 12-13 when she had the first one, and im sure its not a 13 year old boy impregnate her. OBVIOUSLY there was some form of abuse and lack of guidance here. If it was America and a grown ass man got that child pregnant, he would be in big trouble. So we cant sit here and completely blame her. Being poor is one thing, being uneducated is another. She needs some sex ed classes for sure. I’m going to try and help as well bc these are innocent children. We all deserve a fair chance