The response from conscientious citizens, volunteers and corporate citizens answering the call to provide aid for Haiti after Hurricane Mathew ravaged the country has been overwhelming.
The Sunday Guardian visited the two collection areas at St Finbar's RC Church, in Diego Martin, and Sa Maison Guest House, St James, yesterday where volunteer groups collected food, water, clothing, medical supplies and toiletries to be loaded into a container at each site.
Families were arriving at the venues and off-loading supplies throughout the day.
Gregory Farah, the spokesman for the friends, family and parishioners at the church said, “Looking at the news and seeing what was going on in Haiti, how bad the hurricane affected them and they haven't recovered from the earthquake in 2010 yet, I thought let me pull this thing together.
“I called Living Waters who put me on to Food For The Poor organisation in Haiti who will receive the container.
“We got together with the church to stage it here and the support has been overwhelming on social media.” He said the volunteers started loading the 40-foot container yesterday and they hoped that it will be filled by Wednesday and be ready by Thursday to be shipped to Haiti.
Farah said if there was more overwhelming support by Trinidadians they will probably fill another container right after.
He said volunteers were at the church from 9 am to 6 pm and also on Sundays.
Farah said the items were boxed and labelled so that when they reached Haiti they would be easy to sort and distribute.
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]He said the organisation Food For The Poor needed more canned food, pampers, even sheets of plywood and lumber, rather than clothing, which they already had enough of but would not deter anyone from donating.
Farah said he wanted to thank everyone for their overwhelming support in coming to Haiti's aid in their time of crisis.
Avonelle Hector-Joseph, the founder of the local NGO Is There Not a Cause? (ITNAC), said not only were they preparing to send a 20-foot container with relief supplies to Haiti this week, the group had already sent 12 boxes of supplies to St Vincent and six boxes to Jamaica who were also affected by Hurricane Mathew.
She said Massy Stores also shipped a 20-foot container filled with goods to Haiti and ITNAC will follow with a 40-foot container delivery after.
Hector-Joseph said the Haitian relief response had been really good; however, the organisation needed to get a lot more food, medical supplies and toiletries.
She said the group always received a “lot of clothes” which it won't refuse but it wanted people to focus on food, water, medical supplies, toiletries, stationery supplies, sheets and towels.
Hector-Joseph said they had Haitian partners on the ground coordinating efforts such as Children Light and they are also sending a small team including Josue Previlus, a Haitian student studying in Trinidad.
She said each team member will be carrying 60 pounds of relief supplies to Haiti and they were looking to recruit more Haitian volunteers.
Hector-Joseph said she didn't want people to get donor fatigue or lose interest in Haiti, but the NGO was in it for the long haul since 2002.
The group needed skilled personnel, transport, meals for volunteers and wanted to be as efficient and cost-effective as possible to reduce the cost of delivery to Haiti.
Guardian Media has partnered with ITNAC to help the estimated 1.3 million people who have been affected by the catastrophic hurricane.
The UN report, as of October 7, says a total of 271 people were killed and up to 80 per cent of the country’s harvest was lost.
In some areas, like Jeremie for instance, only one per cent of the building structures was left standing.—See Page A 19
To make donations
ITNAC is collecting cash donations, food, water and toiletries. Donations can be dropped off from 8 am on Sundays at Sa Maison Guest House, 6A Anderson Street, St James. For directions call 731-5816.
Anyone interested in assisting Haiti through ITNAC can contact 742-1879 or 394-2042. Make donations to First Citizens account 1660410 and Republic Bank account 510009446802.