Today’s story about two seniors’ homes being refurbished is both heart-warming and encouraging. While residents are still enduring harsh living conditions due to the catastrophic passage of record-strength Hurricane Irma last September, many also did and continue to receive assistance.
As the anniversary of the island’s arguably worst calamity approaches, it is good to reflect on all the relief offered both locally and from abroad to victims since then. Much of that involved volunteers, whether or not supported with public funds.
The list of organisations and groups that stepped up to the plate under extremely dire circumstances is long, but includes K-1 Britannia, SXM Reconstruction, White Yellow Cross Care Foundation (WYCCF), Tzu Chi, the Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) churchmen, Samaritan’s Purse, the Anti-Poverty Platform, the Salvation Army, the Red Cross, St. Maarten Development Fund (SMDF), the various service clubs, Community Aid Sentry Hill (CASH), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the St. Maarten Housing Development Foundation (SMHDF), the Dutch military, and the list goes on.
Certain of these managed to do so with own means, while others used monies made available as emergency aid by the Netherlands and/or local government. Either way, partially due to the initiative and sense of social responsibility shown by the persons directly involved, the country’s early recovery was probably considerably less painful and difficult than it could have been.
In that sense, the people should remain forever thankful.
