MONROVIA – For a little over two decades, 80-year-old mother Watchen Jimmy slept with rats and cockroaches in a dilapidated shack with un-plastered floor in the Sugar Hill Community in Paynesville, outside Monrovia.
Report by Obediah Johnson, [email protected]
The community is located in the commercial hub of Red Light in electoral district # 3, Montserrado County, on the outskirt of the Liberian capital, Monrovia.
Watchen Jimmy is a mother of three children, two boys and a girl who are all residing in Cape Palmas, Maryland County.
Mother Jimmy suffered from severe cold and other illnesses on a regular basis as a result of the deplorable structure she resided in since 1993.
Most often, the aging Liberian mother was compelled to sleep on wet blanket during heavy downpour of rain due to the severity of leakages on the structure.
She served as a prey for a prolong period of time for blood-sucking insects during her stay in the deplorable structure which was constructed with used materials, including bamboo mats, zinc and sticks.
“I used to be the woman for the rats, roaches and lizards in the night. They used to climb on me. See my foot, the rats and roaches used to suck my blood; Here their marks on my foot here. I been living here because I don’t have anybody. My son Ralph can give me money every day to find something to eat; but the other people can’t come around me because they say I am a witch” Mother Jimmy stated.
The deplorable state of Mother Jimmy’s living condition claimed the attention of a local humanitarian organization, the Kolu Sokodolo Foundation.
The Foundation is a non-political and non-profit philanthropic institution that has been providing assistance to vulnerable, less fortunate Liberian citizens and others, including women, children and the elderly since 2016
Helping Hand
The Foundation, over the week end completed the construction of a better home for mother Jimmy and also provided a mattress, bag of rice, cooking, washing, and eating utensils, and other household materials including tubs, buckets, and gallon, among others to the aging Liberian mother.
The group’s Country Director, Monue Shine Gbelemah, commended the Chief Financier, Mrs. Kolu Sokodolo Walters and other donors, for their immense contributions towards the actualization of the project.
He disclosed that the gesture was intended to dignify the living condition of Mother Jimmy, who has suffered the test of time in trying to live under a conducive atmosphere like her colleagues in the same community.
“I used to be the woman for the rats, roaches and lizards in the night. They used to climb on me. See my foot, the rats and roaches used to suck my blood; Here their marks on my foot here. I been living here because I don’t have anybody. My son Ralph can give me money every day to find something to eat; but the other people can’t come around me because they say I am a witch.”
80-year-old mother Watchen Jimmy
“We want to extend thanks to our partners and our sponsors for erecting this building to this stage. We were here a week ago and we saw that the structure was very indecent for our mother and grandmother. And so, the Kolu Sokodolo Children’s Foundation moved in. Today, you can see the structure of the building and everything you think about, we’ve placed it in here for Mother Jimmy”.
Recounting other numerous initiatives of the foundation, Mr. Gbelemah disclosed that a school has been established in district 2, Margibi County to provide education opportunities to hundreds of Liberian children on a tuition-free basis.
He added that numerous donations have been made to less fortunate folks, and several young people have been empowered by the foundation in the country.
“We pray and hope that God will give us strength to move on to continue to do more. We are hoping that the next school year, we will have over 600 children going to school on tuition –free basis. We want to say thank you so much to our CEO that in our own weak way we can be able to identify with pregnant women, old folks and the disabled community”.
Mr. Gbelemah, however, promised that the Foundation will shoulder the medical bills of Madam Watchen Jimmy and continue to provide her food and other basic assorted items.
He, however, underscored the need for potential citizens or groups, including philanthropists and humanitarian organizations to come to the aid of Liberian mothers that are in need, especially in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic in the country.
“We will carry you to the hospital for the doctors to do your check up on your foot and your malaria check”.
“The condition where the house was in first- it was not looking like the place for human being to sleep. But today, my house looking like human being house, I am happy and so, I tell you people thank you plenty. If I had strong foot, I was going to round all over the place here today. I pray to God to bless Ma Kolu for building house for me. I pray for long life for them so that their good, will not go in vain” Madam Watchen Jimmy stated.
She continued: “The man that carried my name (Ralph Kennedy) for the people to come and help me, let God bless him”.
For the first time over nearly three decades, Mother Watchen Jimmy slept on a mattress placed in a better shelter during the week end, as scores of community dwellers leaped praises on the Kolu Sokodolo Children’s Foundation for bettering the living condition of the aging Liberian mother.