-young mother suffers setback

A young mother of Bush Lot, West Berbice who has been operating a snackette on the government reserve at First Dam in front of the family home of well-known businesspersons had her stall dismantled two Sundays ago.

The young woman, Barbara Persaud, 37, said that she built the stall at that location in October last year to maintain her three school-aged children and the businesspersons saw her there many times and never told her that the stall was affecting them.

She said she closed up her stall after selling the afternoon before the incident and went home and everything seemed fine. However, on Sunday afternoon she got a call that her stall was broken down.

The woman said by the time she got there the businesspersons who do not live at the house but have an office at the bottom-flat for a housing project in the area, had already left.

She said she spoke to the workers and they told her that they would rebuild the stall the following morning. When she checked with them the following day the workers told her that they would rebuild the stall after she finds another spot.

However the woman said no other spot is available along the reserve as other residents have been using some parts as a “cow pen and as a garbage dump.”

She did not accept the offer of the businesspersons to rebuild her stall as she could find no other spot. However a few days later, with the assistance of friends, she rebuilt her stall “more down in the corner of the reserve.”

She pointed out that she only erected the stall in October and started selling snacks there. Her husband is currently working in Barbados.

“It hard for me to mind me children and send them to school; right now meh flour and rice buckets empty. If ah don’t work fuh something and help meself who gon give me,” she lamented.

This newspaper was unable to get a comment from the businesspersons who reside in Georgetown but an employee related that they did not deliberately break the woman’s stall. He said they moved it for a religious function last Sunday and placed it in a corner but because “it was weak a cow passed and knocked it down.”

He reiterated that they were willing to rebuild the stall and had told the woman to find another spot and she agreed. He said though that he was surprised that she “called in the media” when they would have sorted out the problem.

He also said that the woman “did not go [to them] in a nice manner” after the stall was broken down. According to the employee, the reason for not wanting the woman’s stall directly in front of their premises was because that area is “very active,” with trucks going there to offload materials.