BY FRANCINE BLACK, Staff Reporter
Sasha Smith (centre) and her eight children who have been abandoned by their father. - RICARDO MAKYN
ON JUNE 18 WHEN families across the world celebrated Father's Day, the dad for Sasha Smith's eight children was absent.
The burden of raising eight children has become too great for 30-year-old Smith who has been a single parent since she was pregnant with triplets, the last of the kids. However, she believes the father of the kids left her and the family because she decided to get baptised.
The father attends church on Saturdays and when Smith decided to get baptised he wanted her to do it at his church. However, Smith baptised in a 'Sunday worshipping church' and since then she has been on her own. "I decided to get save at church and him seh if mi get save him a go weh and from dat him nuh come back," she told THE STAR.
The family which lives in Victoria District, Linstead, St. Catherine, is being assisted by Smith's grandmother, who often uses some of the $2,000 she receives as pension to feed the children.
Smith's brother who lives close by also plays a key role in the children's lives, often sacrificing from his earnings to help Smith send her children to school. Smith is not working but says while she has no formal training or education, she can read and would like a job that allows her to go home at nights to her children. She would also like a job in the Linstead or Bog Walk area, so she will not have to spend much on taxi fare.
CHALLENGES
Despite the challenges facing her, she has also managed to meet the daily expenses of raising her children from assistance she receives from the Programme for Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH).
Currently, her three daughters and paternal twins are on the programme. However, the triplets are to begin basic school next month and while she has applied to have them on the PATH programme, she does not have the funds to provide uniforms and the other school supplies that will be required by her children. "Mi want dem to go school, so any help mi can get wid dem, mi will appreciate it," she said.
Smith says she does not want a relationship with the father, only for him to take care of his children. "I hear he is to go off on farm work and he has been working. All I want is for him to send money to care for his children," she said.
Several months ago she took out a summons at the family court, but that summons has since expired without being served on the father who, she understands lives in a nearby district.
This summons was not served because she could not afford the $1,000 fee being charged at the police station she visited to have it done.
She is considering to take out another summons to serve on him before he leaves. Anyone wishing to assist Smith and her children may contact her at 402-5912 or 848-7372.
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