The shipment of 1,000 cases of bottled water donated by the group- Concerned Muslims of Trinidad and Tobago (CMTT) arrived in St Vincent and the Grenadines on Saturday.
However, CMTTs Public Relations Officer/ Treasurer Imtiaz Mohammed said there were some challenges offloading the cargo from the vessel in a timely manner.
“Our partner on the ground SVG First Responders received part (400 cases) of the shipment today (Saturday) and Monday the balance of 600 cases will be cleared,” Mohammed said.
He added that the SVG First Responders group was expected to start distributing yesterday.
Last week the Concerned Muslims wrote to the Minister of National Security, Stuart Young, seeking travel exemptions for a team of six people to travel to St Vincent in two weeks to distribute the second shipment of relief supplies.
CMTT, also, launched its “Disaster Relief” collection for St Vincent.
On Wednesday, the group bought 1,000 cases of 1.5 litres of water equivalent to one 40-feet container valued at $55,000, which were shipped to the volcano ravaged island on Thursday at 8 am on one of the Caricom boats.
CMTT said its collection drive continues for the next two weeks after which all relief supplies will be shipped to St Vincent.
When contacted about the travel request from CMTT, Minister Young reminded that “we remain in a pandemic and we are managing our borders, i.e. persons leaving and entering Trinidad and Tobago.”
“Just recently, we had to adjust our response to the spread of COVID-19 via the Public Health regulations as the numbers of COVID positives are rising,” he added.
Young also said that it is very unlikely that he would “grant approval for persons to go to St Vincent and the Grenadines at this time, outside of our official response.”
Concerned Muslims of T&T is a philanthropic organisation that has been engaged in doing humanitarian works throughout the world including the Caribbean for the past twelve years.
