Faster help needed for Bahamas

While there have been numerous calls and enquiries about giving to help people in the Bahamas, actual donations have been fairly slow in come in, said Elena Villafana-Sylvester, president of the Foundation for the Enhancement and Enrichment of Life (FEEL).

The Bahamas were hit badly last week by Hurricane Dorian.

In an interview with Newsday on Monday, Villafana-Sylvester said the foundation has not received a lot of physical items.

But, she asid, “With the situation in the Bahamas, I think donations will flow in eventually.

"The reason is that the list is so specific, in terms of what people need, it is taking people a lot of time to collect it themselves and get things going.

“I think TT is normally very responsive so I am pleased with the number of calls and enquiries that we have received thus far. I am hopeful it increases over the coming days.”

Villafana-Sylvester explained that getting someone to donate a chainsaw or an item such as a generator would be very challenging.

She said cash donations could also be made to buy the items. Anyone who wants to give cash can do so at the FEEL Disaster account at Republic Bank's Park Street branch, account number 180434074702.

Caribbean Airlines (CAL) corporate communications manager Dionne Ligoure said on all of CAL’s scheduled services, space had been allocated to take relief supplies to the Bahamas.

Ligoure said several thousand pounds and several hundred cases of items have already been taken to the Bahamas.

“While we are not dealing with the donated items, we are working with NGOs who are ensuring the items are packed to be taken to Bahamas. We are facilitating the movement of the items.

“The Bahamian Government is being very particular about what they require, and we are working with people who are responding to those specific needs.

"We are using our scheduled services to do so. So several times a week we will be sending relief items in the coming weeks,” Ligoure said.