Mother of malnourished boy Akeem says she can’t manage
Single, pregnant and forced to work
By Samantha Alleyne
Stabroek News
February 6, 2003
The mother of malnourished Akeem Trotman who was found begging in the street and featured in the last Sunday Stabroek says she is overwhelmed as a single working mother of three and would not mind her son going to a home.
Twenty-seven-year-old Melissa Trotman works Monday to Saturday and says she is quite often forced to leave her children unsupervised during the day. She is expecting her fourth child and works eight hours a day at a fish processing factory to support her family.
Living in a one-room shack in the squatting area opposite the Banks DIH Industrial Site, the young mother does not have the support of a man since she and the father of the child she is expecting are separated.
Trotman is the mother of, eight-year-old Casey, six-year-old Akeem and one-year-old Odetta.
Casey goes to school but Akeem who is now in the hospital did not and most times was left on his own. His little sister was sometimes looked after by her grandmother who also lives in the area. Akeem is not the woman’s grandchild so most of the time he would be left to fend for himself. He was picked up by a policeman last week Thursday and brought to this newspaper.
Since Akeem’s story was published there have been many offers of help to the little boy and some persons questioned how his mother could allow a sick child to beg on the streets.
“People say all kinda a ting about me and me children. Some sey they should lass me away somewhere and tek away me children dem. But I does gat to go to work fo mine dem, and I does cook and lef food for them...” Trotman told Stabroek News yesterday.
It was just about 9 am yesterday when this newspaper visited her. Melissa was in the yard feeding Odetta who was sitting in a stroller.
On seeing us Melissa quickly went into her home, not to avoid the reporter but to check on her pot boiling on the stove.
Rushing out to deal with the bundle of clothes she had to wash, the woman seemed a bit hesitant to speak as according to her the publicity was a “little embarrassing.”
She recalled that Akeem had been ill for about four years and whenever he was too ill he would be admitted into the hospital. “Look I does try with dem, Akeem does get medication for he sickness. Look, (going into her home and bringing three bottles of medicine) just the other day I went to the hospital and get this fo him, I does try.”
The young mother said she would usually cook in the morning and leave food for the children and would return in the afternoon.
She pointed out that if she did not work then she would be unable to survive with her children.
She related that when Akeem was left in the day he would wander off on his own instead of staying at home. She also alleged that some children in the neighbourhood would take him out on the road to beg for them given his appearance. “They would carry he on the road and he does beg but then dey does tek away the money.
Akeem ent gat to beg. I don’t send he to do dah, is just that I don’t deh around to watch all deh time. When I home he does deh hey with me but is when I gan......”
On Thursday when Akeem was brought to the newspaper, Melissa said she returned home and asked the child’s sister where he was and she told her he had gone out on the road. She learnt that he had $30 which he had dropped and was sent by an adult to look for it and never returned home.
The woman said she searched the entire neighbourhood and when it was nightfall she decided to check the hospital as she suspected someone might have taken him to the institution because of his appearance.
Akeem has told several persons that he does not want to return home and his mother admitted yesterday when she visits the hospital he would sometimes tell the nurses that he does not want to see her.
But according to her it is not because he is ill-treated or physically abused at home. “Who go beat Akeem? He is sick and nobody would want to beat him...” the woman said disclosing that she had been in an abusive relationship but her partner had never hit Akeem. The woman said contrary to some reports her son was not beaten by anyone.
The woman said that there were several people in the area who had taken a liking to her son because of his illness and would often help her out.
She admitted that she could not properly take care of him and said she would not mind him being taken into a home for children. She disclosed that someone had approached her about getting the child into a home and she had agreed.
“Once he in a home where I could go and see he and take things fo him I ent go mine, he need the special help.....And when he get big and feeling better I could get him back.”
Trotman has two other children and one on the way to support so she cannot stay home to look after Akeem full time.
There are several other Akeems out there and this was pointed out by Medical Director of GPHC, Dr Madan Rambarran. He told Stabroek News yesterday that the social worker department of the hospital is investigating the child’s case and would be working along with the Ministry of Human Services & Social Security.
