Social Worker Helping Tucker’s Elderly And Shut-Ins
By: , October 8, 2021The Full Story
As the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues to impact communities across the island, creating health and economic challenges, social worker, Erica Robinson-Daley, is assisting less fortunate persons in Tucker, St. James, providing them with food items.
This is through her ‘Florence Elderly and Shut-in Feeding Programme,’ which was launched on July 21 with the help of colleague Dorett Lawrence.
The programme is named in memory of Mrs. Robinson-Daley’s late mother Florence, who died earlier this year.
“As a social worker, I am cognisant of the hardships a lot of persons are experiencing during this awful pandemic. Tucker has an estimated population of 2,500 persons, with the elderly accounting for 14.5 per cFent of this total,” Mrs. Robinson-Daley told JIS News.
“With the ongoing pandemic, we understand the vulnerability of our elderly and shut-ins and how adversely their lives are being affected, and so the main aim is to provide [them] with care packages. The intention is to provide the packages once monthly,” she informed.
The care packages, which contain food items and toilertries, are handed out on the last Saturday of each month at the Tucker Wesleyan Holiness Church.
She noted that the target is to help an initial 50 persons in Tucker per month and to ultimately broaden the support to other communities.
“At the end of December 2021, the successes and failures will be evaluated,” she told JIS News, noting that additional sponors will be sought to extend the reach of the programme.
“The main objective of the programme is to provide care packages that can assist to reduce hunger and malnutrition among the targeted group. So for us to meet our ambitious goal of serving as many communities as possible, for the programme to continue smoothly, donations in cash or kind are being sought from sponsors,” she said.
“I also want to take time out to thank our many sponsors for their invaluable contributions and for giving us the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of so many people, especially in these very difficult times,” Mrs. Robinson-Daley added.
