Minister of Rural Development and Local Government Khadijah Ameen says more than one thousand relief buckets have been prepared for earthquake-affected communities in Venezuela, with regional corporations leading the effort to sort, package and label donated supplies for shipment.
Minister of Rural Development and Local Government Khadijah Ameen says over 1000 buckets of relief supplies have been sorted by regional corporations across Trinidad and Tobago. The corporations have mobilised to collect, sort and package relief supplies for earthquake-affected communities in Venezuela. The items will be transported to the PLIPDECO warehouse before being shipped to Venezuela.
“They have labelled these items in English and Spanish. They have also packed buckets with items in them, dry foods, canned foods, powdered milk and so on, and this is easy for us to give to an individual, it’s easy to ship, and we are doing this in collaboration with SEWATT. So we have over 1,000 buckets that are packaged, so it will be easy for distribution on the field given the situation with the earthquake. And all of these items will be transported to the Plipdeco warehouse, where they will be packaged on pallets to be shipped on Friday.”
Minister Ameen says the response to the national donation drive has been overwhelmingly positive, with businesses, community organisations and residents rallying to support the humanitarian effort.
“I think that level of enthusiasm is positive. You also have a lot of groups who do social work with Venezuelan citizens who are in Trinidad, and many of them have also reached out with concern because they have relatives there in Venezuela that they want to get items too. So, so far the response have been very, very positive, and even our disaster management units have been very busy in terms of receiving and packaging items.”
The collection drive was based on a list of urgently needed supplies provided through the Venezuelan Ambassador.
“When the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago indicated Trinidad and Tobago’s willingness to send supplies, the Venezuelan Ambassador facilitated a list of relief items coming to Trinidad, and based on that, we did the collection drive. If there is need for any further relief, they will indeed indicate to us.”
Minister Ameen says while this shipment is being finalised, the donation drive remains open. Members of the public can continue contributing relief supplies, while financial donations can be made through the Venezuela Disaster Relief Fund account at First Citizens Bank.