Aug 27, 2026
3 min read
For 32-year-old Doodmattie Ross, a single mother of four from Vryheid, West Canje, Berbice, home is now a place where she and her children can rest without fear of the next rainfall or a strong gust of wind.
Ross, who works as a Community Infrastructure Improvement Project (CIIP) worker, recently received a fully rehabilitated home through the Government's Men on Mission (MoM) Initiative, spearheaded by President Dr Irfaan Ali.
The improved home was handed over to Ross by Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha, providing the family with a safer and more comfortable living environment.
Before the intervention, Ross and her children were living under difficult conditions. She told Ignite News that she had reached out to officials for assistance after conditions at her home became increasingly difficult.
"First of all, the roof was leaking, plus the zinc was flying up, and I reached out to Mr Zamal Hussain. I asked him for assistance, and Mr Morvin Budhan, and they said that they promised me they would help me, and they fulfilled their promise," she said.
She recalled that whenever it rained, water would enter the house, even reaching the area where her children slept. Today, she says that worry has been lifted.
"Over the kids' bed, it was leaking very bad when the rain fell. Actually, when I got home with them and sleep, that's it, it didn't leak in no more," Ross said, expressing gratitude for the assistance her family received.
"We are grateful and thankful for what the government has done for we. At least we get in a good night rest," she said.
The improvements have also extended beyond the roof, with work done to the surroundings of the property, which Ross said provides an added sense of security for her children.
"And they concrete the buttom house, my children don't have to walk in mud and so no more and the fence I don't have to study that anybody will interfere with them," she disclosed.
For a mother raising four children on her own, undertaking such repairs without assistance would have been a major financial challenge.
"I wouldn't able make it because I is a single parent and I does work D&I, so I does try. I does get little public assistance help," she explained.
