Senior citizens get assistance

Residents at the Soroptimists Village at Eden Lodge, St Michael can now enjoy their new laundry facility which was built at a cost of just over $90,000.

The facility which was designed by Tomlin Voss Associates and Markham Construction Company was opened yesterday morning in a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

President of  Soroptimists International Barbados Judith Toppin said the facility took six years to complete as they had to source funding from private donors.

“The construction began in earnest six years ago and we had a small team that looked into doing the architecture for the designs. Then we had a delay and decided we needed to restart and we got on board with Andy Voss who was instrumental with re-looking at our project and [had] come up with some useful ideas,” she said, adding that one of the major problems with the construction was that the cost attached to building the facility as well as purchasing the two washers and one dryer kept climbing each year and exceeding the funds raised.

“As we thought that we reached the stage where we had enough funds, we realized that the cost of living had gone up. So, we are extremely grateful to those who donated their time and expertise to ensure that we are able to celebrate the grand opening today,” Toppin said.

One happy resident, Georgina McCollin, said that she was pleased the facility has been opened as it would allow the residents who do not own a washer machine the opportunity to get their clothes washed.

“I am happy for the others who don’t have because it is a challenge to wash by hand and the apartment is not very big so it would be good to have enough room to do what they have to do,” she said.

Lead architect behind the design of the facility Andy Voss said he believed in giving back to the society.

“To a certain extent, you give back. It is amazing what the Soroptimists have done but they need help. We need people to give back,” he said.

The new laundry facility would be operational from Friday, February 1, 2019.  (LG)