The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

WITH some of their families and friends displaced by Hurricane Maria, Dominicans living in the Bahamas are banding together to provide relief for those in need.

"I have cousins right now who are living in their cars because their home is destroyed and they refuse to leave," said Eleanor Garraway-Philip on Saturday, one of more than 20 people who attended a meeting of the soon-to-be reconstituted Bahamas-Dominica Association as it works through the logistics of providing relief to Dominicans.

"We have people at home in my family who have ranged from no damage to minimal damage to having lost everything. We've all been impacted to some extent. (One group living in the Bahamas), their family home (on Dominica) is no more. It's disintegrated. It's unliveable. Whether business or personal possessions, everyone has been affected," she added.

While grateful that Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis announced plans to relax immigration rules mainly to accommodate Dominican children to enrol in school here, Dominicans living in the Bahamas believe many of their countrymen and women won't look for safe haven here, preferring to go to countries nearer to home.

"We've had many, many offers of people here who are opening their homes or want to but we've had no indication of anyone wanting to take advantage of that situation," Mrs Garraway-Philip said.

Dominicans living in the Bahamas have independently provided assistance to their relatives since Hurricane Maria struck that island.

However, the group's first big foray into providing relief will take place when a Royal Bahamas Defence Force vessel leaves with supplies on October 10 for Dominica.

Donalson Fredericks, who works with the Office of Disaster Management in Dominica and attended Saturday's meeting, said shelter is a paramount concern for Dominicans right now.

"At present, the people of Dominica would benefit a lot more from shelter," he said. "I'm talking about tents, tarpaulins and, of course, food. Clothing is not really a priority at this moment but water and food, these are the main priorities.

"Most of our shelters were not made as shelters and that is posing a serious problem when it comes to getting students back into the school system because the schools are used as shelters," he said. "A lot of houses have been smashed and persons have been living in the shelters."

Dominica is in need of building supplies as well.

"Most of the business places providing building materials and supplies have been demolished and as a result persons have been in there looting and as a result nothing can be salvaged," Mr Fredericks said. "We need to galvanise lumber, also plumbing materials for the restoration of water."

The group is planning to host a fundraising event for Dominica on the grounds of 1erCru, Gladstone Road, on November 4, the day after Dominica's independence anniversary.

On Friday, Dominica's Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said he was upset about rumours spreading in his country about political interference in the distribution of storm relief supplies, according to regional news outlets.

"This talk about food supplies and partisanship with food supplies and politicians are the ones dealing with the delivery of supplies, this is total nonsense," Mr Skerrit said during a press briefing on Friday.

"As the PM of this country, I sleep on the floor. As the prime minister of this country I bathed this morning from a bucket of water. I don't eat corned beef, I don't eat sardines. So where the hell am I going to put or stack up corned beef in my home or anywhere else?"