The Of­fice of Dis­as­ter Pre­pared­ness and Man­age­ment (ODPM), the agency co-or­di­nat­ing and man­ag­ing re­lief as­sis­tance to Caribbean is­lands af­fect­ed by se­vere week­end over the Christ­mas hol­i­days, has launched an ap­peal for sup­plies for St Vin­cent.

On Fri­day, the ODPM de­liv­ered five 40-foot con­tain­ers of re­lief sup­plies to St Lu­cia. How­ev­er, items are al­so need­ed for St Vin­cent and the agency is ap­peal­ing to cit­i­zens and oth­er en­ti­ties for do­na­tions of the fol­low­ing items as out­lined by the Na­tion­al Dis­as­ter Of­fice of St Vin­cent (See side­bars).

Peo­ple wish­ing to do­nate the re­quest­ed items can con­tact the ODPM's Cus­tomer Care Cen­tre at 511 to find out more about the spec­i­fi­ca­tions of the re­quest­ed items be­fore pur­chas­ing or procur­ing the items to en­sure easy and ef­fi­cient lo­gis­tics as well as to con­firm the best drop­ping off point. The ODPM is fur­ther re­quest­ing that do­na­tions be made be­fore 4 pm to­day.

Vol­un­teers are al­so need­ed to pro­vide tech­ni­cal as­sis­tance–e.g. bio­med­ical en­gi­neers and civ­il en­gi­neers. Per­sons are in­ter­est­ed in vol­un­teer­ing can call 511 to reg­is­ter with the ODPM but must do so be­fore 12 noon to­day.

Guide­lines:

Guide­lines to do­nat­ing:

�2 Please en­sure that do­na­tions con­sist of on­ly the re­quest­ed items, items that are not on the list will not be ac­cept­ed

�2 Do­na­tion box­es must be well-packed and sealed and the con­tents of the box­es must be clear­ly la­belled on the out­side

�2 Do not do­nate cloth­ing or med­ica­tion at this time.

items need­ed

Gen­er­al Items:

�2 2,000 Mat­tress­es (sin­gle)

�2 2,000 Mat­tress­es (full)

�2 5,000 Col­lapsi­ble wa­ter jugs or kegs

�2 2,000 each Toi­letries (toi­let pa­per, bath soap, sham­poo, tooth­paste, san­i­tary pads, tooth brush­es)

�2 1,000 bath tow­els

�2 5,000 In­fant dis­pos­able di­a­pers

�2 5,000 Adult dis­pos­able di­a­pers

�2 50 Wa­ter tanks (500 and 1,000 L)

�2 10 Portable gen­er­a­tors

�2 4,000 Cots

�2 1,000 Hy­giene Kits

�2 Mop Buck­ets

�2 Gloves

�2 Jan­i­to­r­i­al sup­plies (dis­in­fec­tant, bleach etc)

�2 Ba­by wipes

�2 Wa­ter pu­rifi­ca­tion tablets

�2 Brooms

�2 Wash­ing de­ter­gents

�2 Two Wa­ter Ma­chines So­lar Pre­ferred

�2 Cov­er­alls

Hard­ware Sup­plies:

�2 Gal­vanised Sheets

�2 Shov­els

�2 Spades

�2 Forks

�2 Hard­board

�2 Tar­pau­lins

�2 Rope

�2 Nails

�2 Ham­mers

�2 Sledge Ham­mers

�2 Crow Bars

�2 Wheel Bar­rows

�2 Heavy Gloves

�2 Flares

�2 Cones

�2 Garbage Bags

�2 Pow­er wash­ers

�2 Tall Boots

Med­ical Re­lief Items:

�2 Au­to Cleaves

�2 CT ma­chine tech­ni­cian

�2 In­dus­tri­al Wash­ing Ma­chine

�2 In­dus­tri­al Dry­ers

�2 De­liv­ery Beds

�2 Med­ica­tion Trol­ley

�2 In­cu­ba­tors

�2 Oxy­gen Plant air com­pres­sors

�2 Pil­lows, bed sheet

�2 Mis­cel­la­neous hos­pi­tal and med­ical sup­plies