24oCNubianne’s gift
Today Nubianne Richards turns 10 and rather than having a party filled with the latest attraction or distraction of a child that age, she wanted to, of all things feed the homeless.
Richards, a standard three student of the St Peter’s RC School, Carenage spoke with Newsday Kids on Thursday and said candidly that all her friends have food so having a party with them made little sense to her.
The articulate aspiring chef and dancer, sitting at her dinning room table, in her home at Scorpion Alley, Haig Street, Carenage, said she wanted to feed the homeless in the capital, Port of Spain.
“I feel sad watching them begging and it makes me happy to give them something to eat. I want to have a birthday party with them with party hats and dessert,” Nubianne said.
The menu she planned and asked her mother, a caterer, to provide was macaroni pie, callaloo, stewed chicken, potato salad and fresh salad with cupcakes for dessert. Nubianne insisted that dessert must be added since guests at birthday parties also get dessert.
Her passion for feeding the poor began in 2014 when she and her family went to Woodford Square to feed the homeless. The family did this a few times after but this year Nubianne insisted, she does not want a birthday party but wants to return to Woodford Square and feed those in need. On the first occasion, 100 boxes were distributed, this time Nubianne prepared 50 boxes which she shared yesterday before her birthday.
“We need more love in this country. Nobody don’t know how they end up there they humans just like us I want them to know that somebody cares for them.”
Nubianne’s young life had a rough start, her mother Akeilah Glasgow, the Chaguaramas/Point Cumana councillor, recalled. Three weeks before her birth Nubianne’s uncle Darryl was murdered. On hearing the news, Glasgow urinated on herself, or at least so she thought, but it was later revealed that her water broke but she did not go into labour. For 21 days her daughter remained in her womb without the protection of the amniotic fluid. On the day she was born, Nubianne had to be stay at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Port of Spain General Hospital for one day.
Maybe it was her fight to live or humble upbringing but Nubianne has a heart for the less fortunate. She challenged the “big people” saying if she could take time out to feed the homeless, how much more can adults do. She added that what goes around comes around and called on adults not to mistreat the homeless.
“Some of them act out and do wrong things because they are not getting the respect and they are giving out what they receive,” Nubianne said wisely.