Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter
NORMAN GRINDLEY, Staff Photographer -
Ferris Ziadie (right), chairman of the Kingston and St. Andrew Red Cross of Jamaica branch, makes a point to Major Denzil Walcott (left), community relations secretary, and Lois Hue, deputy director general of the Red Cross of Jamaica, at The Gleaner's Editors' Forum in Kingston, yesterday.
THE JAMAICA Red Cross and the Salvation Army have assisted more than 12,000 families, expending more than $10 million on food supplies, bedding and other materials for persons affected by Hurricane Ivan.
The non-governmental organisations (NGOs) spoke about their assistance during and after Hurricane Ivan at a Gleaner Editors' Forum at the newspaper's North Street offices, downtown Kingston, yesterday.
Giving a breakdown, the Jamaica Red Cross said that it distributed more than $7 million in food items and materials with Clarendon receiving $1.8 million; Hanover $325,000; Kingston and St. Andrew $450,000; Manchester $1.5 million; Portland $450,000; St. Ann $540,000; Trelawny $920,000; St. Catherine $580,000; St. Elizabeth $1.2 million; Westmoreland $600,000; St. James 395,000 and St. Mary $435,000.
ASSISTING WITH REBUILDING
Lois Hue, deputy director general of the Jamaica Red Cross, said that the agency would also be assisting in the rebuilding efforts such as repairing roofs and assisting persons who lost their livelihood through an income-generating kick-start project.
Explaining how this project would work, Mrs. Hue said, "We will be providing in the first instance seeds for farmers, chickens for chicken farmers and (rebuilding) the coops that were destroyed."
More help is also on the way, according to the deputy director, who disclosed that Red Cross International has also pledged US$6 million to assist Jamaica.
"While we may not have it in hand at this moment, it is something that is committed to see to it that we do what we can," she emphasised. The money, she said, would be used to purchase mattresses and food items locally.
Major Denzil Walcott, community relations secretary at the Salvation Army, said that the agency has assisted 4,500 families islandwide that were affected by the hurricane. The organisation has also spent $3 million in distributing food items and other supplies such as blankets and candles, cases of toilet paper and tarpaulins.
While both agencies have reported that the relief effort has gone fairly well, they reported that there was the challenge of persons not affected trying to access supplies. "That is always a challenge. So, that you have to learn to try to identify the real ones, the genuine cases as opposed to the others," said Mrs. Hue.
Both agencies have also said that the relief effort has so far been non-partisan. Major Walcott said, "One of the things that I have admired this time around is that the politicians have seen the need for them to keep themselves divorced from the distributing of aid. I don't see any partisan support for anyone in particular. I don't think there is any politics involved in it," he said.
