The
Jamaica Defence Force’s (JDF) Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) which
deployed to Dominica in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, returns to the island
on Monday December 4th, having assisted with ‘rebuilding’ operations
in that country for the past 10 weeks. Before the team returns however, it has
gifted the people of Dominica with one last act of support by establishing a
Dominica Disaster Relief Fund designed to generate donations from Jamaican
individuals and companies.
According
to Lt Col Dionne Smalling of the JDF, the drive is intended to “encourage and facilitate
members of the public who wish to make donations to assist the people of
Dominica. As such, all donations will be handed over to the Government of the
Commonwealth of Dominica to assist with relief efforts following the passing of
Hurricane Maria on September 19”.
The JDF
deployed its DART team to Dominica on Tuesday September 26 this year, carrying
out various rebuilding, relief and recovery operations. This included assisting
local security forces with maintaining law and order, logistics support to aid
the distribution of food, water, medical and relief supplies, light
construction and repair as well as providing essential medical care to persons
in need.
In
addition to the infrastructural and other relief work done in Dominica, the
contingent launched a Caribbean wide fundraising drive with a series of runs
dubbed ‘Run for Nature’ on Saturday November 18, 2017. The runs were held
simultaneously in several CARICOM member states, and were aimed at raising
funds to help restore Dominica to its pre-hurricane glory.
In order to continue the
positive gains made by the recovery efforts, the DART team invites members of
the public and corporate Jamaica to support the drive by making donations to
the fund at account number 5502935258 at any Sagicor Bank across the island.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Blogs will be forwarded to national leaders, business leaders and others who might need to see such blogs.