From a package of grocery delivered to his house every two weeks, 65-year-old Gershan Henry has been able to secure regular meals for himself, his dog, and his two feline friends.
A heart patient who lives alone, Henry looks to his pets for company, but the care packages are equally important, because they help him to sustain himself since he has been unemployed for the last five months.
“It’s kind of rough, ennuh, because I am not working again and the little money I was saving, it kind of done out inna medication,” said Henry, who worked for several years as a tractor operator.
“No matter if is one tin of mackerel mi cook, I still let them taste a little piece, I don’t eat it for myself alone,” he said.
In the Savannah area of Wakefield, Linstead, St Catherine, where he resides, several of his neighbours have also been finding it very difficult to survive due to COVID-19. In a bid to ease their burden, the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) and the Council of Voluntary Social Services have been partnering to supply them with relief packages containing groceries and toiletries.
More than $182 million has been raised and over 38,000 packages have been delivered through the PSOJ COVID-19 Jamaica Response Fund up to July 2. Several partners have come on board to ensure the success of the initiative. Among them is the Mona Geo-Informatics Institute, which risk-profiled communities for support. Over 800 communities across the island were assessed based on 22 data sets. After the assessment, which included factors such as crime, unemployment and poverty, the top 25 were selected. Read more …
There are no comments published yet.