Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Con­trib­u­tor

Con­cerned Mus­lims of Trinidad and To­ba­go (CMTT) has pur­chased ap­prox­i­mate­ly US$22,000 worth of re­lief sup­plies to as­sist com­mu­ni­ties in Ja­maica af­fect­ed in the af­ter­math of Hur­ri­cane Melis­sa.

Ac­cord­ing to CMTT PRO Im­ti­az Mo­hammed, the items, bought on Sat­ur­day in Ja­maica, in­clude rice, flour, sug­ar, baked beans, cook­ing oil, broad beans, pas­ta, tinned mack­er­el, mac­a­roni, bath soap, laun­dry de­ter­gent, toi­let pa­per, crack­ers and bot­tled wa­ter.

“These sup­plies will al­low us to make about 500 ham­pers,” Mo­hammed, who is cur­rent­ly in Ja­maica with a CMTT team, said.

“It took us an en­tire day to pur­chase and trans­port the items to the mosque in Span­ish Town. We be­gan pack­ing to­day (Sat­ur­day) and ex­pect to com­plete the process to­mor­row, with dis­tri­b­u­tion planned for Mon­day and Tues­day.”

Mo­hammed added that the group has reached out to Akee­lah Man­na, sec­re­tary of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Stu­dents’ As­so­ci­a­tion in Mona, and in­tends to pro­vide some re­quest­ed items to as­sist stu­dents in need.

How­ev­er, he ex­pressed con­cern about the sit­u­a­tion in St. Eliz­a­beth and oth­er parts of west­ern Ja­maica. Mo­hammed said he was ad­vised that con­di­tions in those ar­eas were “ex­treme­ly dan­ger­ous.”

He said un­for­tu­nate­ly, re­ports of rob­beries, loot­ing and threats at knife- and gun­point have made it risky for vol­un­teers and aid work­ers.

Mo­hammed ad­vised that any teams plan­ning to de­liv­er re­lief di­rect­ly to those re­gions should co­or­di­nate with the Ja­maica De­fence Force for se­cu­ri­ty and safe pas­sage.