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Deborah Fearon is a bar owner who also has a small chicken business. She depends on both for a living. Before the COVID-19 outbreak she was doing well, and had plans of completing her house this year. However, she has been hit hard by the economic onslaught brought on by the virus, and is now treading water.

"Dem close down the bar now, so I'm not making any money to help with the bills, like to pay the light bill. It is so hard for me," said Fearon, who operates a bar in her community, Goshen, St Elizabeth.

She said that her bills have also been a crippling factor, since she is without a source of income.

"The bills I had to pay when I was working is the same now, and I'm not working. The other day me light cut off for $37,000 and after me pay it, me nuh have no food to eat."

HARD TIMES

Bars across the country have been ordered closed since mid-March by the Government as a method of slowing the spread of the COVID-19 disease. Prime Minister Andrew Holness, however, has acknowledged that bar owners such as Fearon have been facing hard times as a result of the measure. He said that his Government will make an announcement soon on the reopening of bars.

While a declaration that bars can reopen their doors would be good news for Fearon, that would solve only half of her problem. She said that her chicken business has been is decline since the novel coronavirus surfaced in Jamaica as restaurants and cookshops to which she normally sells have hardly been buying chicken meat.

"I have about 600 pounds or more of chicken on the fridge and 900 in the coop," she said. "I normally kill 200 chickens every week and sell it to restaurants, but two of the restaurants close down because of the virus."

"I have partner that I was in and I have to be taking back the money little by little to buy feed for the chickens. I can't save anything. If the chickens were at least selling, I could buy feeding for the others."

Being an independent woman, Fearon said it is unlike her to reach out for help, but this is a rather tough time.

"Me just want to be able to help myself because me nuh in a the begging thing, me nuh depend on nobody," she said. "A long time me a try make things work for me and my children, but sometimes me feel fed up and like I would just give up because the situation nuh easy," she told THE WEEKEND STAR. "But I can't give up right now either, it wouldn't make sense, because who is gonna help me and my children?"

Deborah Fearon can be contacted at (876) 428-8017