Gov’t moving to streamline hurricane relief donations
MANY Jamaicans in the Diaspora with a philanthropic spirit and passionate about the country of their birth have been clamouring to assist with the Hurricane Beryl recovery and relief efforts, following the storm’s passage which caused extensive damage to some of the island’s infrastructure and displaced many people.
Among those offering a hand is Dr Binzie Roy Davidson, a health-care entrepreneur, philanthropist, and community development advocate, who says he has been donating to Jamaica over the past 40 years. He hails from Westmoreland and now lives in the United States of America.
Dr Davidson, who is also a founding director of non-profit organisation Global Humanity Network Incorporated, told the Jamaica Observer that he is eager to assist with rebuilding efforts in his parish and is targeting assistance to repair the Little London High School in Westmoreland which is among the 100 schools damaged by the hurricane.
The donation, he said, will be made through the Little London High School International Group which he chairs.
“We will be meeting this week to make plans to donate to our projects in Jamaica — refurbishing of Little London High School and restoring some homes in St Elizabeth and Westmoreland,” he said.
Dr Davidson, who is also president of the Caribbean Cricket Club of Los Angeles, said through this entity, he will be making a special donation to the Honorary Consulate of St Vincent and the Grenadines for the restoration of the country’s building fund.
“We are very strategic with our donations to ensure the people we know benefit from our donations,” said Dr Davidson.
But while appreciative of all donations for Hurricane Beryl recovery from the Diaspora, the Jamaican Government is encouraging people wishing to make cash donations to the cause, to do so through its dedicated website:
www.disasterfund.opm.gov.jm.
Developed by the Amber Group, the website, which was unveiled by Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Monday, was established as the Government’s centralised source for information and statistics on the impact of Hurricane Beryl, and to accept donations from people who wish to support the relief efforts.
“Anyone, locally or overseas, with a Visa or Mastercard debit or credit, can go on the site and make a donation. One of the reasons we established this official portal is to provide assurance to persons who want [to make contributions] that their donations are going to the right place and will be put to good use,” Holness said.
On Wednesday, minister with responsibility for information Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon told a post-Cabinet press briefing that the Government has developed a needs list to ensure the necessary assistance is provided to those in need.
“For example, we need a lot of food items which we have put on a separate list, and we have local distributors who are actually wanting to support food, and we’re putting in a mechanism…in order to receive that food. We need things for the agricultural sector which is key. They need a lot of assistance from seeds, to irrigation systems, to rebuild what they have. All of our greenhouses in St Elizabeth were destroyed, all of them, and so, we will need equipment to rebuild them,” said Morris Dixon.
She said that the needs list is to be placed on the website, “so that anyone anywhere in the world who wants to assist will assist with the right items because sometimes, you may want to help and you send something that’s not necessarily needed right now. And so it’s important that you follow the needs list”.
Dr Morris Dixon explained that when people go on the website they will see a donate button which they will click on. This will take them to a field that will ask for their information — name, address and e-mail address. They will then be taken to a secure site so they can use their credit or debit card.
“And you can donate those funds which will go directly to the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) to facilitate the recovery efforts on buying more care packages and so on. And so anyone from the Diaspora [can access it]. It is a very simple process and there’s a nice surprise at the end — you get an e-mail from a special person to show how grateful the entire Jamaica is,” she said.
The information minister said that Jamaicans in the Diaspora who wish to donate through other official channels such as Jamaica’s missions, high commissions, and embassies around the world, they may go ahead and do so.
She said they will be given some support in terms of the needs list. “They all have the needs list and so they can help you to understand what is best for you to send to Jamaica,” she said.
Morris Dixon also advised people sending items to Jamaica to ensure they share the manifest so the Government knows what will be arriving and so the Jamaica Customs Agency can seamlessly clear the items on their behalf.
“We have special facilities at Customs. We know Jamaicans are going to want to send things home for the recovery effort and so Customs has implemented a process to make it smoother for relief items to come into the country. So we’re doing everything on our side to facilitate it and we know our Diaspora really want to support us and we thank them in advance for all that they will do to help us to build back even stronger,” she said.