TT’s UWI students abroad receiving money for food

Communications Minister Donna Cox announced that US$300 has been wired to UWI campuses in Barbados and Jamaica to each of the 184 TT non-scholarship students there. Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said all Caricom countries accepted covid19 "as a definite threat to our way of life in Caricom." They made their respective statements at the virtual health news conference on Wednesday.

Cox said on Monday, US$300 was wired to the UWI campus bursars in Barbados and Jamaica. This money, she explained, will be distributed to each of the 184 TT non-scholarship students who are at the UWI campuses in those countries, allowing them to buy food.

Cox said the bursars are "contacting each student so that arrangements can be made to wire the money directly to their bank accounts". She said similar arrangements are being made for TT nationals who are studying in Cuba. Cox added, all national scholarship winners studying in Jamaica, Barbados "and elsewhere in the world have already received their personal maintenance allowances up to May and June."

Deyalsingh said the Caricom common health protocol which regional leaders agreed to on April 15, underscores the real threat covid19 poses to the region. While social distancing and proper hygiene are common threads in the fight against covid19, Deyalsingh said, "Different countries based on their risk profile will have different ways of treating with border closures, different ways of what they allow in and out."

He reiterated that TT has taken "all necessary steps to save lives and protect the society of TT" Deyalsingh added that because there is no vaccine to counter covid19 "we agreed at a Caricom level that we have to develop our own health protocols."