ON FRIDAY MORNING, Hallam Gittens, his girlfriend Andria Brathwaite and stepson Kishmar Brathwaite were sitting on a monthly income of about $7 000 amongst them.
That sum was stripped down to zero in a matter of hours, through no fault of their own.
The three were on the list – the list of close to 300 temporary workers from the National Housing Corporation (NHC) who received termination letters as part of Government’s restructuring programme.
Even before she had the letter in hand, Andria, 44, was anxious. From where she sat, she could see a long line of workers from various departments filing into the NHC boardroom and coming back out in tears. It was only a matter of time before she, too, broke down in tears and had to be relieved from her duties at reception.
“I felt really bad. I saw people that were there before me. So I said if dem gine home I gine home next,” she recalled.
Her suspicions were soon confirmed via a summons to the boardroom.
“I don’t have a job. I owe the credit union. I owe the bank. I owe for the stuff in here and I have my son to support. What am I going to do?” she queried.
Hallam was the second to receive a letter and Kishmar got his sometime later. Yesterday Kishmar said he was feeling “sad” and is not sure what he will do next.
“I understand how the Government is now. So I guess I can’t do nothing ’bout that,” the 26-year-old said.
Both Hallam and Kishmar joined the NHC five years ago, and Andria would have celebrated her sixth anniversary yesterday.
