BossMom gives Kimoy Buchanan new lease on life
Published:Friday | May 6, 2022 | 12:05 AMAinsworth Morris/Staff Reporter
Six years ago, intuition gnawed at Kimoy Buchanan not to leave her house for a nearby games night but she disobeyed.
The then businesswoman and mother of three decided to go because she wanted to support the festivities hosted by a friend.
But while there, she got the chilling news that the house she rented and a shop at the front were on fire.
Although hurrying home, kicking in her doors, and throwing water, it is said that the cause was electrical-based, so, amid throwing water on the blaze, it only intensified.
Since that night, her life has been going downhill.
“I would say I lost about half a million dollars worth of items and my fridges back then. Mi lose three fridge in all, mi washing machine, mi stove, beds, dresser, component set and everything you could think of in a house,” Buchanan told The Gleaner on Wednesday.
She added: “I was working at a restaurant a year ago and it closed down. I’m not working right now, but sometimes I do a little hair on the side. I was trying to build a fowl clip to raise some chickens, but I am not that financially stable so I don’t know when that’s going to happen.”
Over the years, she has managed to replace her bed, couch and a fridge.
Following that fire, she sent two of her daughters to live with her mother in a Food For The Poor house which the grandmother got in 2009, at Stirling Castle in Ewarton, St Catherine.
Buchanan has been bouncing around houses of her friends in the parish of St Catherine.
CHILD WITH SPECIAL NEEDS
To add to all her life’s battles, Buchanan’s eldest daughter, who is 19 years old, has special needs. That daughter was born premature at six months and three weeks. She is hearing-impaired and her tonsils was removed as a child.
However, a silver lining is on the horizon for the child, because she is now being trained by the Abilities Foundation to become a make-up artist.
It is woman in business or those who lost in business that the female mothers-based outreach group called BossMom were on a search to gift with houses for Mother’s Day this year, and Buchanan is elated she has been selected as one of three mothers.
According to Michelle Gordon, founder of BossMom, it is resilient, determined and needy mothers like Buchanan that her group is proud to assist this year.
“These three mothers who have benefited from this initiative this year. I hope they’ll find some other way to help somebody else, because there are so many people who need help,” Gordon told The Gleaner.
“I’m very thankful for all the sponsors who came on board for the donation of three homes for Mother’s Day this year. I’m very, very full and grateful, blessed to be able to bless others and I just want to encourage every mother to pass it on to another mother,” she added.
After handing over the house on Wednesday as a Mother’s Day gift, Gordon gave Buchanan stock, at an undisclosed value, to start her business again.
BossMom donated US$4,900 for each house, which was equally matched by Food For The Poor Jamaica. Numerous corporate donors pitched in and gave donations to the BossMom Network for the three houses as well.
Two Instagram vloggers, Debbie-Ann White and Tamara from ‘We’re Traveling Friends’, journeyed from Miami to Jamaica to assist BossMom with a similar build in Curatoe Hill, Clarendon, for another mother, Suzette Wilson.
The duo, who have Jamaican heritage, have no regrets coming to be a part of.
“It’s something that we’ve always wanted to do. Right before COVID, we had the experience of getting to know that there is need all over the world, but given that we consider Jamaica our home [country], we wanted to make sure that we started here,” Tamara told The Gleaner.
The third mother, Delmoi Bailey who lives in St Elizabeth, also received a house ahead of Mother’s Day.