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Task Force assists over 100 families affected by tropical wave

- Government, private sector & volunteer organisations collaborated to assist affected families
Members of the BVI Red Cross Society doing a flood damage assessment recently. Photo: VINO/File
Head of the Aid Management Group of the Recovery Task Force and Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Social Development, Tasha K. Bertie has emphasised the need for persons who have lost personal property during the recent tropical wave to ensure their claims are filed at the Department of Disaster Management (DDM) no later than Friday, August 25, 2017. Photo: GIS/File
Head of the Aid Management Group of the Recovery Task Force and Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Social Development, Tasha K. Bertie has emphasised the need for persons who have lost personal property during the recent tropical wave to ensure their claims are filed at the Department of Disaster Management (DDM) no later than Friday, August 25, 2017. Photo: GIS/File
Food gift voucher being presented to a flood affected family. Photo: DDM
Food gift voucher being presented to a flood affected family. Photo: DDM
ROAD TOWN, Tortola, VI – Tasha K. Bertie, Head of the Aid Management Group of the Recovery Task Force and Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Social Development, stated that more than 100 families have been assisted following the August 7 2017 tropical wave.

As part of the ongoing recovery process, relief supplies including food, clothing and beds have been made available for affected families.

“Collectively, more than 100 families have been assisted. The BVI Red Cross has provided relief support to approximately 30 persons, Family Support Network more than 40 persons and District Representatives have also been providing beds and other essential items to affected individuals.”

Ms Bertie stated that over the past days the Government, private sector and voluntary organisations have been working together to provide support, noting that the efforts of these organisations are commendable and symbolic of a united Virgin Islands.

She further reported that the BVI Red Cross, Rotary Clubs and Lions Club were also contributors to the relief supplies.

Ms Bertie said, “Seventy-eight boxes of clothing, food, bed and bath linens, medicine, toys and other items were donated from private individuals in the US Virgin Islands.

In relations to the private sector, she stated that “fifty-two families were assessed and identified as requiring immediate food supplies following which Road Town Wholesale Trading Ltd provided support in the form of $100 gift vouchers which are now being distributed per family.”

Grateful for assistance

Speaking with an individual who wished to remain anonymous, she expressed gratitude for the assistance received.

“My house was damaged and I was wondering what I was going to do to get back on my feet but I received helped from BVI Red Cross and it helped me a lot.”

Another individual who received assistance commented that after the flood she was devastated and very worried for her son because she would not have somewhere for him to sleep because everything in her house was damaged.

“I cried when I saw what was left of my house because I immediately thought of my son. The Family Support Network and BVI Red Cross has helped through this tough time.”

‘Important to file for claims’- Bertie

Ms Bertie also emphasised the need for persons who have lost personal property to ensure their claims are filed at the Department of Disaster Management (DDM) no later than Friday, August 25, 2017.

“It is important that individuals continue to file claims so that we can have an idea of who is affected and identify urgent needs that must be met. The cutoff point is necessary so that we can be in a position to determine the other areas of assistance required and how these can be supported,” she explained,

Small businesses with less than ten employees and without insurance who require assistance are also encouraged to file their claims before 4:30 P.M. Friday.

7 Responses to “Task Force assists over 100 families affected by tropical wave”

  • Just saying (24/08/2017, 14:22) Like (9) Dislike (2) Reply
    We needed that ship
    • concern (24/08/2017, 17:03) Like (10) Dislike (9) Reply
      To ship you away. Get involved with the clean up like a good citizen please.
  • wet (24/08/2017, 19:01) Like (1) Dislike (1) Reply
    just the normal public relations businesses are hurting
  • cay (24/08/2017, 21:16) Like (2) Dislike (0) Reply
    If this was mere political posturing by the some civil servants who trying to keep their government jobs, the NDP will pay a very heavy price for this.
  • i from here (24/08/2017, 21:21) Like (5) Dislike (0) Reply
    People who believe in miracles are doomed to suffer because they take no responsibility for fixing their own problems.
  • Wait a minute (25/08/2017, 08:53) Like (1) Dislike (0) Reply
    Did I read the article to say the FSN helped 40 families and red cross 30 so that means the majority were helped by volunteer charities not government. Why govt blowing deh horn?
  • where (25/08/2017, 15:45) Like (1) Dislike (0) Reply
    are the rotary club and others?

    Secondly, the mental constructs are so very varied, so one always have to remind one self of such, that.

    Too many are still handicapped mentally into thinking that handouts are better than self help.

    My second worst introduction to the physical manifestations of racism was at age (10) (1965) where I was physically and racially verbally assaulted by a British sailor from a ship that stopped by VG for R&R.

    Me, a little "pissy tail boy" that was enjoying a day at the beach, minding my own business, having fun, and aking in the novelty of a British frigit. Then one drunken sailor saw me as a good target to start a fight with and to beat up just because I was a little "Black boy."

    The drunken coward he was, he didn't pick on any of the bigger boys, and yet they were the ones that saved my butt from his racist, drunken wrath. That man literally attacked me out of the clear blue sky and for no apparent reason that i had caused other than being there in the moment and my skin color.

    Imagine the subsequent permanent impressions that experience have let on and within mind from then to present, relative to the British. some scars never heal. Particularly those impressed upon a child's mind.

    We need to stop begging for a ship to come to our rescue, and sorrowfully moaning because it didn't. Besides national and political pride being put aside, what make some think that anyone on any ship will want to come ashore to help clean up Black people's mess? Only those who are not aware of what's in the Brit psyche.

    We must foster a mentality that speaks to the notion that no matter how tough life gets; how much destruction mother nature throws at us; and how much our resources are being tested and depleted, we can pull through it on our own.

    Our fore bearers have suffered, endured and brought forward much upon their shoulders. We have experienced absolutely nothing in terms suffering and destitution as they have. So let's shut up and get to work doing for ourselves.

    We don't need handouts from nobody! Here is one reason why. If all of the churches, for example, gather their congregation(s) from each community where they are located to carry out clean campaigns, the whole island would have been cleaned up already.

    Additionally, if said churches were to spend some of that tithe money taken from said communities to pay for heavy lifting clean up, sufficient heavy equipment could've been charged and paid to assist in the clean up process. These and more are all things that we can and should be doing for ourselves. Our nation could have well on its way to being completely clean already.

    A national hotline could have been set up that afforded all business and individuals the ability to call in and contribute donations to the National Clean Up Cause.

    Instead, everyone is looking to someone to come and help them enjoy a handout..

    Again, the question is asked, where are all the churches especially in this, social and other secret clubs such as Rotary and others whose name I do not know?

    Lastly. where is our own national pride?

    There are some folks in VG who, of their own volition, organize clean up periodic session. Shouldn't that be inspiration for the rest of us?

    Oh, by the way, I have many heart wrenching (R) experiences since 1965, primarily in the U.S.A. Such was never taught to you as a child so you don't (didn't know it existed or how to react to it, until it hits you like bolt of lightening right between the eyes when experiencing it, racism, for the first time.

    The experience is always life and mind altering, permanently. I hope that one day, those that have such beliefs and do act upon will have a change of mind and heart and a reawakening into the human race.


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