She was born crippled… Raped…. Robbed… House-razed… and single-handedly raised a 13-year-old son. Anything else could have negatively happened to Corretta Vincent, a 31-year-old woman, who has to move around in a wheelchair but this is one Jamaican who is more than up to the challenge.
 
“Days and months have come and gone, even years too, when I believed that this was my lot,” said a courageous Corretta as she looked unbelievably at the Food for the Poor work crew being very busy putting up her new two-bedroom house at her Stephen Lane address in Waltham Park, Kingston.
 
The cost of the house is put at US$5,200. Additional facilities include a bathroom, and furniture.  Ms. Vincent also received a brand new wheel chair courtesy of Food for the Poor.
 
Corretta was once a resident of the Mona Rehabilitation Centre in Papine, St. Andrew. Sent their by her mother for purposes of rehabilitation and care, Corretta subsequently became pregnant. “One of the porters raped me… then they put me out on the street,” she recalled.
 
After spending several uncomfortable and embarrassing days on the street, she literally crawled back to her mother who was then living off Waltham Park Road. “Mom died shortly after, on October 3, 1998,” she said. “Then again things started getting worst, no one to care for me, plus I was taking care of a young son and being disabled, made the situation even more unbearable.”
 
Whatever she had to do, Corretta had done it just to survive. Today, she depends on the proceeds from selling “bag juice and sweety.”
 
Now that she has a place of her own… a brand new two-bedroom house built from the ground up, Corretta has an unbelievable renewed faith in humanity. “I am so happy for the help! I didn’t know I would have found a way out.  You can see for your self that I was suffering and being crippled even made things worst.  

But my advice to persons who are going through hell and power house, if I can survive, you can… there is always a light at the end of the tunnel… and if you continue to look forward with faith, you will come out the victor.”
 
Corretta is even more delighted for her 13 year-old son who will now have his very own room. “I guess he will be more settled and comfortable when he comes home from school and he can take his friends home with him… and most of all, he has a comfortable area to do his homework,” said Corretta, who had nothing but praises and thanks for the Food for the Poor staff who turned out to show their love. “Thank you Food for the Poor… you saved me and my son’s life.”