The Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go has mo­bilised a co­or­di­nat­ed na­tion­al re­lief ef­fort to sup­port Ja­maica fol­low­ing the dev­as­ta­tion caused by Hur­ri­cane Melis­sa.

Act­ing on the di­rec­tive of Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, an In­ter-Min­is­te­r­i­al Com­mit­tee has been es­tab­lished to over­see the re­lief and re­cov­ery re­sponse. The Com­mit­tee is co­or­di­nat­ed by the Min­istry of For­eign and CARI­COM Af­fairs, led by Min­is­ter Sean Sobers, and in­cludes rep­re­sen­ta­tives from key min­istries such as Fi­nance, Health, De­fence, So­cial De­vel­op­ment, Pub­lic Util­i­ties, and Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment.

The Min­istry of For­eign and CARI­COM Af­fairs said the co­or­di­nat­ed re­sponse un­der­scores Gov­ern­ment’s com­mit­ment to re­gion­al sol­i­dar­i­ty and its readi­ness to pro­vide time­ly and ef­fec­tive sup­port. The Min­istry al­so con­firmed that all Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als in Ja­maica, in­clud­ing stu­dents, are safe fol­low­ing checks by the High Com­mis­sion in Kingston.

As part of this ef­fort, the Min­istry of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment will host a na­tion­al col­lec­tion dri­ve from Oc­to­ber 30 to No­vem­ber 4, be­tween 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. dai­ly, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with all 14 mu­nic­i­pal cor­po­ra­tions across Trinidad and the To­ba­go Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency (TEMA).

Cit­i­zens can do­nate non-per­ish­able items with a shelf life of at least three months at any Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tion Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment Unit. Pri­vate sec­tor do­na­tions will be ac­cept­ed at Sheds 1 and 2, Port of Point Lisas, Ama­zon Dri­ve, Point Lisas.

Mon­e­tary con­tri­bu­tions may be made to the T&T Na­tion­al Dis­as­ter Re­lief Fund at First Cit­i­zens Bank, ac­count num­ber 3154684, at any branch or via on­line trans­fer.

The Min­istry said the In­ter-Min­is­te­r­i­al Com­mit­tee met with Per­ma­nent Sec­re­taries ear­li­er this week to co­or­di­nate lo­gis­tics and align re­sources, fol­low­ing dis­cus­sions be­tween the Prime Min­is­ter and Min­is­ters on Oc­to­ber 28, and an ear­li­er meet­ing be­tween Min­is­ters Sobers and the Min­is­ter of De­fence with pri­vate sec­tor rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

Mean­while, the In­ter Re­li­gious Or­gan­i­sa­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go ex­tend­ed prayers for those af­fect­ed by the storm. “May God in his in­fi­nite mer­cy grant his heal­ing hands on them,” said 1st Vice-Pres­i­dent Pan­dit Lloyd Mukram Sir­joo. “We pray for their bless­ings of strength and for­ti­tude in this most try­ing cir­cum­stance.”