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ODPEM Creates Information Desk for Donation of Relief Supplies

August 23, 2007

The Full Story

The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) has created an information desk for persons, who wish to donate relief supplies to the organization.
Ronald Jackson, Director General of ODPEM, told JIS News on (Aug. 22) that the information desk, which is now operational, will be manned by an information officer.
“We have already begun to receive pledges. Persons can call in and make a pledge to our information officer and she will collect it and soon we will have a volunteer, who will come in and work with our information officer to receive those pledges,” he said.
In the meantime, he indicated that ODPEM is still carrying out relief activities across the island, especially in the areas that were seriously damaged by the passage of Hurricane Dean.
“The teams are out and they are trying to address the needs as it comes up. They are focusing their efforts on what is currently seen as the most affected areas, which are the Vere Plains, Rocky Point and Portland Cottage in Clarendon, Old Harbour Bay, St. Catherine, Caribbean Terrace, Kingston and pockets of St. Thomas,” Mr. Jackson said.
“So they are trying to get to those areas and to focus on those areas as well as to service the needs of the shelters,” he stated.
The Director General informed that there are “challenges but the team continues to meet periodically to review the process and to see what changes in the strategy needs to be employed to address the challenges.”
“Everybody, who is having a problem, is really appealing to the agencies to try and get to them now, and that can be a challenge given that it is not a lot of persons trying to meet the needs of many persons.
We are just asking for persons to bear with the agencies as we try to get to everybody. we are trying to address some of the priority needs, which include providing temporary roofing,” Mr. Jackson said.
In the meantime, a total of 3,478 persons are being housed in 67 shelters across the island. “The number has been falling,” Mr. Jackson said, adding that, “we have managed to cut the six thousand plus that we saw on Monday, and the numbers have been steadily declining since then.”
“We are going to take steps to see if we can close out those shelters and get the schools up and running for September. That is the objective and what the focus is going to be for the next week,” he continued.
The ODPEM can be contacted at 928-5111-3 or 928-8942.

Last Updated: August 23, 2007

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