Eight charity organizations in Dominica have benefited from $54,635.50 raised during the 12th Annual President’s Charities Foundation fundraising dinner held at the Fort Young Hotel on July 4th.
The organizations are Dominica Association of Persons with Disabilities (DAPD), St Jerome’s Ministry, Dominica Council on Aging, R.E.A.C.H, House of Hope St Vincent De Paul Society, Roving Caregivers Programme and the Social Centre.
Each organization will receive approximately $14,250
President of Dominica His Excellency, Charles Savarin, said at a handing over ceremony on Monday there is a need to recognize that there are challenges with young people in society, “and those organizations who reach out to those young persons are doing a service for the society here in Dominica.”
He also said other organizations and community-based groups, who reach out to the elderly, are also doing tremendous work.
“We are very happy that we are able to reach out to them,” he stated. “I believe all of you who are here representing these organizations are representing what is best in us in Dominica,” he said.
In December the foundation is expected to host the annual Christmas party for about 280 children from the villages most affected by Tropical Storm Erika and will cost about $15,000- $18,000.
The President noted that as a result of the passage of Tropical Storm Erika, the President’s Charities Foundation felt the need to do something special.
“We set up a President Charity’s Foundation Erika relief Fund,” Savarin revealed. “The whole idea was to try to raise some funds to be able to assist some of the persons and communities affected and we chose the communities of Coulibistrie in the Salisbury constituency and the village of Colihaut, in the Colihaut constituency and decided that we would focus on support for the children of those two communities. We refer to it as medium term support because we are not going to get into the question of food, and clothing, and things of that nature.”
Savarin added, “We recognized that the impact of Erika will be with us for some time and after the immediate initial shock and the relief supply would have dried up there will still be needs in these communities, and we therefore feel that we would like to be able to contribute towards addressing those medium term needs.”
He mentioned further that the foundation have set a target of waiving some US$100,000 or EC$270,000. We utilized in the first instance the reserve funds, we keep a little bit on the side for emergencies and we thought that this was in fact the best use to which the emergency fund could be put and we started off the relief fund with $27,000 from the reserve funds which was about $32,000 at the time…,” he noted.
He also highlighted problems the people of Delices and Boetica are currently faced with following the passage of Erika.
“The history of that gorge is one in which lives were lost in the construction of the road and now we find that two months after the passage of Tropical Storm Erika these persons are cut off from the rest of the island, and we have to empathize with them and appreciate their understanding and fortitude as they await the completion of the work which is being done to link them to the rest of Dominica,” he explained.
He appealed to the private sector to contribute to this effort.
The foundation wishes to acknowledge the following sponsors:
They are; Issa Trading Limited, Ross University School of Medicine, Dominica National Petroleum Company Limited, LIME Dominica, H.H.V Whitchurch and Company Limited, Dominica Electricity Services Limted, Embassy of the People’s Republic of China, Marpin 2K4 Limited, the AID Bank , National Bank of Dominica, First Domestic Insurance Company, Carib Sand and Stones Limited, PetroCaribe , J Astaphans and Company Limited , Fine Foods Incorporated, Archipelago Trading and Print Express.
This is a great project and deserves applause and recognition to all involved.
Good projects.