Gillett family’s new home up in 3 days

And while the Minister was deflecting questions about an alleged investigation, he was on hand to deliver a brand new sixteen by twenty wooden house to the Gillett family whose two storey wooden house caved in on Monday. Charles Gillett and his mother, Pearl Garnett, suffered minor injuries in the mishap and had to seek medical treatment at the K.H.M.H. they slept for three nights in a small structure on the same property.

Charles Gillett, Homeowner
“Mr. Boots finish it up and dehn tell mi tonight I wah sleep eena mi new house.”

Marion Ali
“It’s not much smaller than the house that you lived in right?”

Charles Gillett
“No, it’s the same size, only dat di next house mi higher and had upstairs and downstairs.”

Marion Ali
“How is your mom doing?”

Charles Gillett
“She’s okay, she was frighten more dan anything else.”

Marion Ali
“And you have recovered yourself from the injuries?”

Charles Gillett
“Mi knee still … mi foot and I mi knock mi back.”

Anthony “Boots” Martinez, Minister of Works
“In Belize City alone we have rescued about fifteen of these situations before it reached the media. Under this phase of the Poverty Alleviation Project, we have repaired over two hundred homes on the southside of Belize City and continuing. So I think that the government is doing a good job in regards to—and also you have some of the homes that we repair, we put the basic amenities to it, like a bathroom structure and try to ensure that the people they have the basic light and water. Like this house right here, we hook up this house now to the sewer system. They didn’t have a bathroom in place functioning the proper way. This new house has a functioning bathroom. We have wired over the entire home.”

Cadet Henderson, C.E.O., Ministry of Works
“I’m very impressed that in three days a house was constructed that is habitable. It will go down well in the evaluation of our project later this year when the OPEC Fund visits. Even the roof, their rafters are two feet centers. I’ve seen houses build by professional contractors where it’s three feet apart; an element of hurricane resistance that goes into the design. The minister himself insisted that gable ends, that the roofing sheet is lapped and nailed.”

The family had lived in the collapsed house since 1971. Presently the Ministry, under the Poverty Alleviation Project, is putting four more families in Belize City into new homes.