According to her last boss, Tekania Swan is a “very bright and energetic individual who takes exceptional pride in her work” and is a “person of utmost integrity and honesty”.The 33-year-old is described by the manager of the furniture store where she held her last permanent job as “always helpful to customers and fellow staff” and “always so willing and conscientious and a real delight to work with”.She sounds like a model employee yet Ms Swan, a single mother of two young sons, can’t even get an interview to become a road sweeper or hotel laundry attendant, never mind secure herself well-paid full-time work.The high school graduate she gained her Bermuda Secondary School Certificate at Sandys Secondary School lost her job last September when her employer downsized his business.Since then, she has applied for countless positions in the public and private sector and has collected a briefcase full of rejection letters from those organisations which have bothered to respond.“You put in applications but nobody is responding back to you,” she says. “At this point right now, I’m looking for anything, any type of job where I’m active. I have applied for jobs like landscape worker, outside type of jobs. I just want to work.”Her neatly typed résumé and covering letters outline all these skills but they also reveal she is solely responsible for looking after her sons their father is in prison so she can’t work weekends, evenings or [public] holidays when the boys are off school.She fears that is putting off employers but is desperate for someone to give her a chance. “I just need to get through the door and have an interview so I can explain,” she says.Determined to earn a living, Ms Swan has been working on Government’s Hustle Truck each day, cleaning bus stops from 8.30am until about 3pm, after which she job hunts. She has also done a stint volunteering for the Mirrors programme.Her colleagues on the Hustle Truck have nicknamed her “The Horse” thanks to her work ethic. “They asked me if I minded. I said ‘no, I don’t mind, because I work’. I’m proud of that.”Working on the truck has ensured she can pay her rent each week, but it’s a struggle to clothe and feed her sons, aged 14 and nine, pay other bills and clear the $8,000 in rent arrears she owes Bermuda Housing Corporation.She can make $525 for a full week’s work on the truck but is not covered for health insurance and once her rent is paid that leaves only about $260. She has received state financial assistance in the past but says the amount can vary.“Unfortunately, my children suffer at this point,” says Ms Swan. “I pretty much starve myself so my kids can have. If I eat once a day, that’s enough. If I go out to work, I work straight through.“I don’t buy clothes, I don’t go out, I don’t drink. I work hard. The only thing that worries me is the $8,000 arrears. It stresses me out.”The former Post Office worker would love a job back in Government but has failed to get interviews for numerous positions, including a road sweeper for Public Works and a heavy labourer with the Parks department.“I’m a team player, I’m very good at that, and I work well with others,” she says. “I’m very strong, I’m extremely honest and I work very hard. I have got good organisational skills too.“I go to church. The one thing I can do is hope and pray. I know I’m going to get a job; I just don’t know when.”l Employers interested in speaking to Ms Swan should call the Hustle Truck office on 236-0540.