Relief supplies to reach right hands, Rotary assures Digicel

The humanitarian efforts of the local Rotary Club were bolstered yesterday when the organization received several food and medical supplies from telecommunications giant Digicel.

The company donated some 560 cases of water, in excess of 12 cases of medical supplies, as well as more than 300 cases of juices and food items such as corned beef, cereals, and biscuits.

District Governor for Rotary Delma Maduro said the items will be distributed to persons who have been living in emergency shelters since category 5 hurricanes Irma and Maria affected the territory last month.

“We are working as a family on relief for the BVI like other organizations such as Digicel, and we gladly accept this very generous donation here which you can rest assured will get into the right hands… The shelters will be one of the first areas that we look at in terms of identifying persons,” Maduro said.

Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer at Digicel Kevin Gordon said the company wanted to do more than restore telecoms to the BVI.

“We want to ensure that we are giving back to the community, and we thought of no other club to give this to than Rotary. There are a number of person in need, and Digicel is doing as much as possible to ensure the community is served,” he said.

While he underscored the importance of donating to the wider community, Gordon said it is also paramount to take care of his workers.

In that vein, Digicel made a separate donation of food and water to its 27 BVI employees.

“The staff, for us, is primary. They are more important than any cell site that we can ever build. We’ve always said it; they are number one. If we are not thinking of our staff, we are not doing our jobs… Here we have not just water, but other supplies to keep them for a little bit. We’ll continue to support them as they go through post-hurricane BVI,” Gordon said.

“Our priority is our staff – to ensure that they and their family are covered.”

Digicel, since the hurricanes passed, also promised to make several other donations through the government. They include repairs to Althea Scatliffe Primary School, as well as a donation of $100,000 worth of building materials for persons whose damaged houses were not insured.