SMHDF Director Helen Salomons informing persons residing at the senior citizens home in Belvedere about Saturday’s clean-up campaign.
BELVEDERE--Renovation work is scheduled to get under way at the Red Cross senior citizens home in Belvedere and it starts with a clean-up of the premises this Saturday. The clean-up is part of SXM DOET’s volunteer campaign.
“In order to prepare for the work teams, the senior tenants are being asked to place their unwanted items outside and/or request SMHDF [St. Maarten Housing Development Foundation – Ed.] support. The St. Maarten Red Cross gratefully has made their team available for this endeavour as part of the SXM DOET campaign. The central bank [Central Bank of Curaçao and St. Maarten] is also expected to join in this endeavour,” said SMHDF in a press release on Thursday.
SMHDF Director Helen Salomons said the persons residing in the home have been waiting since the passage of Hurricane Irma in 2017 for repairs to begin.
“Now, thanks to funds raised by the Red Cross, the wait will soon be over for the seniors. The first part [of the] mission is an enthusiastic team of volunteers to aid in the clean-up campaign and assist the seniors who are unable to discard the debris on their own.
“The seniors in Belvedere seemed very receptive to what SMHDF had to say about the works ahead and were immensely happy that finally their complex will receive the upgrade and clean-up that it needed.
“They were thankful for information they received from SMHDF and want us to keep in contact with them more often, which we have already taken steps to do, including planned bi-weekly meetings with the tenants prior to the actual reconstruction,” she said.
The funds for this renovation work were raised by the Curaçao Red Cross and Bonaire Red Cross.
St. Maarten Red Cross and SMHDF are collaborating to “ensure the works are finished on time and to the satisfaction of the Belvedere tenants,” according to the press release.
SMHDF thanked all volunteers for their “valuable contribution to the striving group of independently-living seniors.”
