An­na-Lisa Paul

The con­tin­gent of sol­diers from the T&T De­fence Force (TTDF), cur­rent­ly sta­tioned in St Vin­cent and the Grenadines (SVG) fol­low­ing the erup­tion of the La Soufrière vol­cano on April 9, may have to re­main on the is­land longer if such or­ders are hand­ed down from se­nior of­fi­cials.

This was the word on Tues­day from the TTDF’s Chief of De­fence Staff, Air Com­modore Dar­ryl Daniel.

He said the ini­tial de­ploy­ment had been for a pe­ri­od of two weeks, but if in­struct­ed by their se­niors, they “would work from there.”

Daniel spoke to re­porters as he ac­com­pa­nied Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds and Trade Min­is­ter Paula Gopee-Scoon to view the lat­est do­na­tion ship­ment which was be­ing read­ied aboard the Galleons Pas­sage Tues­day evening for trans­fer to SVG.

Ap­plaud­ing cit­i­zens for their gen­eros­i­ty as they re­spond­ed to the call to give gen­er­ous­ly for those who were forced to flee their homes, Hinds said the cor­po­rate sec­tor and in­di­vid­u­als had ral­lied to pro­vide hun­dreds of thou­sands of dol­lars worth of sup­plies.

Among the items which are ex­pect­ed to ar­rive in SVG to­mor­row are bot­tled wa­ter, soft-drinks, canned foods, tents, wa­ter tanks, wa­ter pumps, clean­ing sup­plies, mops, buck­ets, wheel-bar­rows, san­i­tiz­er, mat­tress­es, toi­let pa­per, safe­ty equip­ment and med­ical aid.

Hinds, who is the Laven­tille West MP, said many lo­cals like him­self who have an­ces­tral ties to SVG, were on­ly too hap­py to give.

Al­so present on Tues­day was Tu­na­puna MP Es­mond Forde who said his con­stituents had re­spond­ed gen­er­ous­ly to the call.

Com­mend­ing the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty for stretch­ing their hands to en­sure SVG gets what it needs dur­ing this time of de­spair, Gopee-Scoon said sev­er­al ship­ments of do­na­tions in the last two weeks was re­flec­tive of the re­gion “com­ing to­geth­er and just giv­ing back.”

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley is the Cari­com chair­man, and as Gopee-Scoon and Hinds in­di­cat­ed, it has been with great ease that T&T has been very will­ing to give and will con­tin­ue as more do­na­tions are ex­pect­ed to­day.

The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cer, Lau­rel Leza­ma-Lee Sing said a pub­lic call was put out one week ago for do­na­tions and based on the tenets of re­gion­al in­te­gra­tion, “We have seen the good­ness of the sim­ple, or­di­nary peo­ple of T&T shine through.”

The T&T Man­u­fac­tur­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTMA) is ex­pect­ed to fill sev­er­al con­tain­ers for ship­ment to SVG in the days ahead.