The St. Maarten Tzu Chi Foundation continued to bring comfort to the country’s seniors with its recent repair work to another section of the roof of sick elderly resident Franky Estanus.
Tzu Chi had fixed the main portion of the 63-year-old’s roof back in late 2022. At that time, the senior, who had been battling a number of medical issues, and who slept in his car after becoming homeless, but was given a place to sleep, was residing under a roof that was largely covered by tarpaulin. Tzu Tzu Chi removed the tarpaulin back then and fixed the roof much to the appreciativeness of the senior.
The senior, recently turned to Tzu Chi again for help to fix another section of the roof which had been leaking due to the aging of the house.
Tzu Chi volunteers Louise and Martin made the sacrifice and took on the task to arrange for the immediate repairs even though they had been extremely busy with their own respective work.
A volunteer who is a carpenter again extended his love and compassion to the senior to repair the leak. The repair work took two days. The partially damaged roof and plywood were replaced with new material.
Eustanus was deeply grateful and touched by the continued assistance and for a job well done. He was particularly touched by the love and care towards him, when he learnt of the sacrifice that volunteers made to help him. One volunteer, who had been working in French Quarter, had to take two buses travelling with two large bags containing tools to reach Eustanus’ Cay Bay residence to perform the volunteer work.
The effort is comforting to the Tzu Chi family. Tzu Chi Commissioner Sandra Cheung said Tzu Chi Founder Master Cheng Yen teaches us that everyone, just like a firefly, has a light, which when put together, can truly light up a dark corner.
Cheung said, in this case, based on one individual, it would be challenging to take on a volunteer effort of this magnitude. However, the positive teachings from Master Cheng Yen, let us realize that when love is combined, using each person’s potential, we are able to transform the impossible into the possible.
One volunteer arranged to purchase the materials, another delivered the materials, another handled the main repairing, another handled assisting, another handled the cleaning and yet another handled the food and drinks during the repairing. Together with one mindset and one goal, which was to help Eustanus sleep peacefully without getting wet when it rains, Cheung said.
A total of seven volunteers and one Tzu Chi Commissioner participated in the exercise. Three new zinc sheets and two lengths of plywood were used for the repair effort.
Volunteers expressed their appreciation. One volunteer said he was thankful for the time spent and the opportunity to give back to the elderly. Eustanus was ecstatic. “I am so grateful for the volunteers who helped me,” he said. “They were here for two days. They did a beautiful job… and I am so happy and I am so glad especially for the volunteer Victor who had no transportation, yet came all the way from French Quarter, taking two busses and walked from Cole Bay to reach me and when he was finished, he had no transport and with his two bags, he had to take two busses again to go back home. I appreciated that and I felt it. Thank you for all that you have done for me. Thank you so much. God bless all the volunteers and the Tzu Chi foundation,” he said.
Cheung is grateful to all those who assisted and Eustanus for reaching out for the assistance.