Teen and boyfriend living on City streets seek home and help

By Kimberley Cummins 

A young couple roughing it out on the streets of Bridgetown, apparently for the past two years, is asking for help.

Amaris Gittens, 19, and her 22-year-old boyfriend Enrique Marshall, who are both intellectually challenged, have been making a home for themselves on the benches in Heroes Square and Independence Square.

Gittens’ situation is compounded by the fact that she suffers from kidney issues and was recently diagnosed with diabetes.

In an interview with Barbados TODAY, the teenager struggled to gather her possessions, comprising rags and a pillow, and seek refuge from the rain under a tree a short distance away from the Cenotaph.

Pain was etched across her face with each step, as her swollen legs carried her, while Marshall, lugging several suitcases, held onto her to provide support.

At night, the beauty of the Parliament buildings creates for them solace from their harsh reality, before they doze off either on the hard earth or the cold floor of the gazebo.

With her doctor indicating that circulation in her legs was a major issue, Gittens must keep her feet elevated on a bench as she tries to rest at night, with a single pillow to ease the discomfort.

To maintain her hygiene, she uses a bucket of water to bathe near the historic Barbados Dolphin Fountain or, on a good day, if she has strength in her feet, she would walk to the beach for a sea bath.

“Sometimes my legs would heal up in the sea but when I start back to walk it does be hurting me. So, the doctor tell me get off my legs,” the teenager lamented.

“It is not easy,” Marshall, a former student of the Ann Hill School revealed. “Right now, I just searching for someplace for me and she to go and I ain’t getting through anywhere.”

The two agreed their predicament was due to their refusal to stop seeing each other as directed by their respective families. They explained that their decision to not separate stems from Gittens’ alleged sexual abuse at the hands of a close family friend.

That person, Gittens claimed, tried to “touch me up” and have sex with her on more than one occasion. The last straw came when the person claimed they wanted to take her to the beach for medicinal reasons but instead touched her inappropriately.

That was when Marshall stepped in to defend her and a conflict ensued. They said the individual still frequents Gittens’ home which was why she preferred to brave the dangers of living on the streets with Marshall, than elsewhere without him.

“We got family issues. My family don’t like he family, he family don’t like my family, so we just would be sleeping on the road. . . . Out here getting real hard for we. People tekking out we stuff, some people stealing we stuff, some people threatening we, some people telling we, we got the place look nasty . . . . ,” Gittens said.

The couple, who said they had not eaten breakfast or lunch, noted their first meal of the day would usually be around 4 p.m. or 5 p.m.

“We reach out to we church people, welfare and were able to get a letter to get food from the Salvation Army. We ain’t get nothing else from them,” Marshall said.

“I could come back home but she will want to come with me. So, I just decide to save the argument with my family and thing and stay with she and look to find someplace to stay for me and she,” he added.

Meanwhile, president of the Barbados Vagrants and Homeless Society (BVHS) Kemar Saffrey told Barbados TODAY that he was aware of the couple’s case. However, he posited that they were homeless by choice, as a result of “puppy love” and indicated that there wasn’t much he could do for them.

Saffrey said the couple was housed in his shelter for a short period but had to leave because rules prohibit men and women from sleeping together.

“So, you find that both of them would rather sleep on the streets and be together than to go back home or be in somewhere safe,” he said.

“I know a lot of people have been meeting with them, a lot of concern has been raised about them, but from what we have seen, is that because of the situation or because both of them [have] mental challenges or both of them look like they are challenged people have this ‘cuh dear’ for them. The stories that I am hearing . . . is making more people lean towards them as well . . . . Amaris can go home, Mr Marshall can go home; it is just that they choose to be on the streets for the sake that both of them can be together,” Saffrey stressed. (KC)