Michelle Loubon

The chief bread­win­ner sud­den­ly dies in a fam­i­ly. Chil­dren and ba­bies are left to fend for them­selves. The moth­er suf­fers a ner­vous break­down. A dis­abled per­son needs a wheel­chair. Sin­gle moth­ers are un­able to pro­vide suf­fi­cient food, cloth­ing and shel­ter for their pre­cious chil­dren.

When crises and per­son­al mis­for­tunes, like the afore­men­tioned, test the strength and for­ti­tude of vul­ner­a­ble cit­i­zens, the Guardian Need­i­est Cas­es Fund lends a help­ing hand. Its cre­do is Mak­ing A Dif­fer­ence. It has been reach­ing out to needy cit­i­zens since 1934. The Fund op­er­ates as a non-gov­ern­men­tal or­gan­i­sa­tion (NGO) with­in ANSA McAL. To date, many cit­i­zens have re­ceived mon­e­tary and ma­te­r­i­al re­lief.

In­ter­viewed re­cent­ly, the Fund's ad­min­is­tra­tor, Ann Mar­cia Samm said they re­mained com­mit­ted to help­ing the poor, dis­ad­van­taged, vul­ner­a­ble and weak. ANSA McAL Awards Co-or­di­na­tor, Maria Niel­son-Su­perville, is al­so very ac­tive in rais­ing do­na­tions. She said: "The Fund is in­tend­ed to help peo­ple in need; es­pe­cial­ly those who are sick, dis­abled and can­not work. They reach out to sin­gle par­ents and help with ba­sic liv­ing ex­pens­es. They reach out to the el­der­ly and ne­glect­ed in the so­ci­ety. We help peo­ple from To­co to Tor­tu­ga. We help peo­ple from Char­lot­teville to Ce­dros. We tra­verse the en­tire length of T&T."

She added: "We find a lot of sin­gle moth­ers are most vul­ner­a­ble. In 2011, we as­sist­ed 998 peo­ple. From that num­ber, 936 were giv­en Christ­mas grants. The oth­ers were giv­en as­sis­tance through­out the year. Monies were giv­en in grants, which ranged from $250 to $1000." Samm ex­plained when a needy per­son makes a re­quest, the Board of Trustees would de­cide up­on the ap­pro­pri­ate sum. They would con­sid­er mit­i­gat­ing cir­cum­stances and fac­tors, like the num­ber of chil­dren, peo­ple em­ployed and even their liv­ing con­di­tions. Then, the Board of Trustees would de­cide if it's $1,000 or more.

Last year, Samm said peo­ple re­ceived about $275,000. "We paid out about $275,000." She is hop­ing more peo­ple would pledge fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance so more hu­man­i­tar­i­an work could be done.

More in­fo

• Do­na­tions to the Guardian Need­i­est Cas­es Fund may be made at the of­fices of the Guardian at 22-24 St Vin­cent Street, Port-of-Spain; Chancery Lane, San Fer­nan­do, and Mid Cen­tre Mall, Ch­agua­nas, or through any branch of RBC Bank or Re­pub­lic Bank Ltd. Cheques can al­so be made out to the Guardian Need­i­est Cas­es Fund. A ther­mome­ter records the names and sums pledged.