ONR to Put On Fund-Raising Events

The Office of National Reconstruction (ONR), in a bid to swell the pool of funds available for reconstruction and relief efforts, will be seeking to host a number of fund-raising activities, by year end.
Communications Liaison in the ONR, Tracey Hamilton, told JIS News that the office was looking at hosting fund-raising activities in the Tri-state area of the United States of America (USA), the United Kingdom (UK), and to a lesser extent, Canada. The office is also planning to put on a number of raffles islandwide.
It is hoped, she said, that the fund-raising events would help to raise another $600 million. The ONR has so far received commitments of $900 million, but current estimates have put the total damage of Hurricane Ivan at $22.4 billion.
Therefore, the ONR, which has been mandated to co-ordinate relief and reconstruction efforts over a six month period, will be needing significantly greater inflows to meet the cost of the rebuilding effort.Part of the ONR’s mandate is to spearhead and anchor the programmes and activities necessary for full and expeditious national recovery in the aftermath of the hurricane.