PAST President of the Disabled Person Network, Mark Archibald, a 55-year-old resident of Region Five, and nine others will soon receive the keys to homes that are being built for them by Food for the Poor (FFTP) Guyana Inc.

Following the announcement, an elated Archibald thanked the organisation for selecting him. He said that he was unable to construct his own home as he could not afford it.

Officials from the FFTP’s General Housing Programme, in the presence of the beneficiaries, signed the contracts for the construction of the houses in its conference room on August 30. The beneficiaries live in Region Two and Region Five.

Each beneficiary will receive a 20ft by 16ft wooden two-bedroom house containing a modern flush toilet facility for those in Region Five and an outdoor modern flush toilet facility for those in Region Two.

The homes will also be furnished with four metal folding chairs, one plastic folding table, two small beds with mattresses (cots), one two-burner tabletop gas stove and one solar panel.

Additionally, a rain harvesting component will be installed at no cost to the beneficiaries.

FFTP’s Senior Project Manager, Andrea Benjamin and Project Associate, Orin Nelson, recently visited the beneficiaries and conducted a needs assessment.

Benjamin told the Guyana Chronicle that the project is part of the organisation’s aims and objectives and vision of restoring dignity, eradicating poverty, building sustainable and resilient communities and making families happier and more comfortable across Guyana.

Nelson, during the visits, spoke to the beneficiaries and their families about good hygiene, use of the sanitary facility and caring for the new structure.

During the construction period, the beneficiaries will be required to participate in Parental Skills, Anger Management, Self-care, Domestic Violence and Child Abuse workshops. These sessions will be facilitated by Child Link Guyana.

Those selected are legal citizens of Guyana, have dependents under the age of 16 and are living in a low standard building/environment.

Meanwhile, Nadira Seecharan, a mother of four, also expressed gratitude to FFTP for selecting her and for ensuring that her children will be comfortably housed.

“This really makes me happy to know that come Christmas, my family and I will be housed in a new home,” Seecharan said.