Back to school...after floods

WFWP representative Nobuko Sasaki presents a bag and school supplies to a girl, whose family was affected by flooding on October 19-20, at North Oropuche Government Primary School, last Saturday. From left is WFWP president Princes Lee Keith and Sangre Grande Regional Corporation chairman Terry Rondon. NGOs and bookstores are helping children return to school with new supplies. PHOTO BY ANGELO MARCELLE
WFWP representative Nobuko Sasaki presents a bag and school supplies to a girl, whose family was affected by flooding on October 19-20, at North Oropuche Government Primary School, last Saturday. From left is WFWP president Princes Lee Keith and Sangre Grande Regional Corporation chairman Terry Rondon. NGOs and bookstores are helping children return to school with new supplies. PHOTO BY ANGELO MARCELLE

In the wake of widespread floods on the weekend of October 20, many organisations focussed on getting families back in their homes and providing basic necessities to help them get back on their feet. However, numerous NGOs, bookstores and publishers have also been making the effort to get children back to school as soon as possible.

Managing director of Charran’s Book Services, Rico Charran, said the Charran family had been very active trying to bring relief to flood victims. He said they walked through several areas, saw the devastation first hand and donated food, cleaning supplies, shoes and school uniforms directly to families.

He said several stores went further. For example, Charran’s Bookstore in San Juan arranged for medical treatment for some of those affected by the floods, and Charran’s in Chaguanas worked with the Scout Association of TT, several churches, as well as the Anjuman Sunnat ul Jammat Association to donate, collect and distribute relief supplies.

He said most of the family’s stores were working with schools in the areas in which they were located to provide school supplies including stationery, lunch kits, school bags, and textbooks.

They were also working with the Book Industry Organisation of TT, which was collaborating with the Textbook Management Unit of the Ministry of Education to supply textbooks to primary and secondary schools. In addition, he said the organisation was also working with its members to provide any additional requirements for students.

“The local publishers in particular have been very very generous. They have offered to replace textbooks free of charge, which is a fantastic initiative.”

Once such publisher was Royards Publishing Company.

Royards employee, Diamond Coutain Rambaransingh, explained they were replacing textbooks published by the company, which were mainly primary school textbooks and a few secondary school English books.

In this October 20 file photo, Janyssa Jackson stands among books and household items salvaged from her home at Oropune Gardens, Piarco after flooding on October 19. Booksellers and publishers have been helping children get back to school with new schoolbooks and supplies PHOTO BY ANGELO MARCELLE

She said they sold directly to book stores so they were not aware which schools had the company’s books on their booklists. Therefore she suggested parents either contact the school for the list or visit their website at Royards.com so the children could identify the lost books from their list of publications. However, she said teachers from at least two schools already visited the office in Macoya to collect books for their students, and encouraged other schools to do the same.

She said they were not asking for evidence of flood damage since they were aware that most people already threw out the damaged books. “A crisis is a crisis so we are not asking for evidence. It’s up to them to be honest.”

However, Keith Khan’s Books Etc Ltd on Frederick Street, Port of Spain, asked that people send in their requests and verify the damaged schoolbooks or their location through photographic evidence via What’s App at 392-7253 or Facebook. The document provided by the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management to flood-affected people could also be used as evidence.

Manager Rameez Ramoo explained, “We are asking for proof because we had some people who were not in flood-affected areas who were trying to take advantage of the promotion so we needed to verify by asking them to send a picture of their home, proof of address, and stuff like that.”

He said the small bookshop immediately started raising funds for flood victims. Although they focussed mainly on textbooks, many people also donated stationary, accessories such as school bags, lunch bags and pencil cases, as well as cleaning supplies and toiletries which were added to packages.

Ramoo said the shop received approximately 500 requests so they worked with several NGOs, including Halimah’s Helping Hands, to distribute the packages to Greenvale Park, La Horquetta, in Mayaro, and anywhere that was flooded.

The Holistic Learning Centre Ltd too attempted to do as much as it could for flood victims. However, its book drive started even before the flood.

Director Hannah Sammy said the centre started collecting used textbooks from primary to tertiary levels since June, and anyone who requested books over the August vacation was given them free of charge. “The idea of it was to reduce the waste of books. I realised a lot of people have old books and don’t know what to do with them so they end up throwing them away or burning them and I didn’t like it.” She said before the flood they had about 300 textbooks but after, people donated several hundred more. She also partnered with small businesses which donated book bags, notebooks and stationary.

Since then, the centre sorted and packed scores of packages for individuals and families across the country. Sammy said they also supplied textbooks to schools and early childhood centres but the requests were dwindling as the weeks passed.

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"Back to school…after floods"

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