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Mothers struggle to pick up the pieces

Photo by Ttamell Simons>Charlita Campbell, one of the residents of the house on Scott's Hill Road in Somerset that was destroyed in a fire on Friday, May 13.

One of the three women left homeless by last week?s house fire in Somerset has been offered accommodation by the Bermuda Housing Corporation and will be moving at the end of the month.

Charlita Campbell met with the BHC and financial assistance on Wednesday.

She said she was worried about outstanding rent ? almost $6,000 ? she still owed the BHC, but financial assistance offered to pay BHC and would be giving her $200 a month to help pay for groceries.

The other two women, Itah Reid and Mia Winters hope to meet with financial assistance and the BHC soon.

The three women and four children shared the former two-bedroom apartment on Scott?s Hill Road until it was gutted in a fire last Friday.

Collectively the three woman have nine children, but because the house in Somerset was so small, some of their children are either in foster care or living with other family members.

However, they were each hopeful that they would find new homes big enough so that they could get their children back. Ms Campbell said she was happy that finally her eldest daughter would finally be able to move back in with her and her other two children.

She said she could not believe it when Premier Alex Scott phoned her at the weekend and said the Government would do what it could to help them.

Ms Campbell works at Nine Beaches and is currently living with her aunt (who also cares for her eldest daughter) until she moves into her new home on June 1.

?I?m still worried about furniture and clothing since my room was completely destroyed in the fire,? she said.

She shared the lounge with her two children and this was where the fire allegedly started.

While she was not appealing for help, she said she would be grateful if anyone could help her with clothing for her and her children.

Ms Campbell is between a size 11 and 13 while her daughter, Anthasia is a size four and her son Giovanni is between a size seven and eight.

She said a large bag of shoes had been dropped off for her and her children.

Another former resident of the house, Ms Reid, who works at Cambridge Beaches, said she was now living with family in Paget and commuting to work every day.

She said her seven-year-old daughter was currently staying with her grandmother, while her two-year-old daughter was with her in Paget.

Ms Reid said Cambridge Beaches had been very good to her and told her that once she found a new home, they would help her with furniture.

She said she also was lucky as far as other possessions were concerned because they managed to save most of her clothing and that of her children.

The only other resident, Ms Winters, is now living with her sister, but said that she could only stay there for a week or two.

?There are already so many people living there,? she said.

One of the biggest problems she had was finding a nursery or day-care centre for her seven-month-old son.

She said she had been unable to get financial assistance to help pay for a Government nursery or day-care centre where she could leave Allan and return to work.

She?s been unemployed for almost a year and said she didn?t want to leave Allan with ?just anyone?.

Ms Winters said the only thing she needed was a crib for her son.

?Everything else was okay and we managed to save quite a bit of clothing from my room,? she said.

Ms Winters and her baby son were asleep when the fire started, but thanks to their neighbour, Jerome Crockwell, she and her son climbed through a bedroom window to safety.

Besides her seven-month-old son, Ms Winters also has three sons aged, 14, ten and six.