The Tribune

By FARRAH JOHNSON

fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

ABACO residents who were forced to relocate to New Providence after Hurricane Dorian destroyed their homes said they are frustrated with the difficult process storm victims have to go through to receive assistance from the government.

One victim, who asked to be identified only as Mrs Curry, and her mother Virgie Russell, said prolonged waiting and hostile attitudes from workers in the Department of Social Services have discouraged the family from seeking the assistance they need.

"For me my frustration has already been thrown out of the window because I've realised that at the beginning when I came here, the process of getting help was frustrating," Mrs Curry told The Tribune.

"It got to the point where I stopped going for help because I've made up my mind that I'm not getting the help that I think I should be getting."

Mrs Curry said to deal with her frustration, she has decided to make herself content with her current situation.

"I've said to myself, I have to make myself happy. Right now I'm just trying to live day by day, but going out reaching to social services and all the other places, I don't do that anymore because the process is too frustrating.

"And then they feel as if you're coming there to beg them," she added. "The government telling you to go there and when you do, the persons who work in the offices they in return treating you as if you come there looking for something when you're told to come there."

Mrs Curry insisted she and her family would love to move back to Abaco but realise they will have to stay in Nassau for the "long haul".

"The first time I went (back to Abaco) I was fine," she said. "The second time I went to retrieve some stuff, I promise I was not going back because it was too depressing.

"I spoke to some persons (and) it seems like the streets are cleared where you could drive about, but the Marsh Harbour area still looks depressing. So I made up my mind for at least three years I'm going to be here."

Mrs Curry also said the lack of employment opportunities have made adjusting to life in New Providence particularly difficult. She added that she also missed being in Abaco because living in Nassau had become too costly.

"I thought Maxwell's Supermarket was expensive but it's nowhere compared to here. We just went to Super Value on Saturday to shop for basic stuff. We only bought two pieces of meat, everything else was dry goods and the bill was over $300," she lamented.

"I'm staying with a sister because the rent is just out of the window," she added. "The way I see it, if you're working and you have to pay utilities and rent, you won't have anything to buy groceries with because the rent is extremely high."

Her mother, an 87-year old diabetic, also told this newspaper that she is trusting in God to keep her family despite their current circumstance.

"We was living in one apartment in Central Pines and we had a lot of water from the roof come into our house because the roof blew off. I can't complain because there's no use. You have to wait on God's time. There's nothing I could do, so I'll have to stay in Nassau," Mrs Russell said.

When asked to respond to complaints from storm evacuees, Lillian Quant-Forbes, acting director of social services, said while she understood the frustration of storm victims, "everything has a process".

"One of the things that the Ministry of Social Services has been looking at is to look at strengthening our capacity and bringing on some project persons to work this with us so that we can move things along and do this more quickly," she said.

Mrs Quant-Forbes also apologised on behalf of staff who may have discouraged storm evacuees from coming to the department for assistance.

"I do apologise if my staff has made anybody feel any way," she said. "That is not what we are here for. We are here to provide a service to the best of our ability and so the first thing off the bat is being able to interact with persons coming in in a professional manner."

Still, Mrs Quant-Forbes said there have also been cases where people seeking assistance have come to the Department of Social Services "already agitated".

"We are prideful people - we meaning Bahamians and people who have status here - and so the majority of times they find themselves in a situation which is foreign to them," she explained.

"They've never had to come to social services for assistance...so it's awkward for them and when we say to them 'We need to have your information, here's what is required,' some of them give us the pushback. Still, we try our best to see how quickly we can have the process done."