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Many hands make light work as Rotarians pitch in to pack Christmas hampers.

A Christmas of need

For the little old lady in Grazettes on the cusp of celebrating her 100th birthday, it was another Christmas without basic toilet facilities.

As appalling as that is, she was not the only person in need when some families were celebrating this Christian landmark with plenty to eat and drink.

Service clubs are reporting an increase in requests from families in need of assistance, while corporate Barbados, itself hit by reduced earnings associated with the Covid-19 pandemic, has not been as forthcoming as in the past to support worthy causes.

Pricemart, the Green Hill-based wholesaler, Digicel and Channell and Trimart supermarkets are among the companies that have stepped up in response to the difficult circumstances some families are facing.

On Saturday, a small army of volunteers from Rotary Club of Barbados South, members of the Rotaract club, the youth arm, friends and family gathered at Guardian General Insurance on Collymore Rock from early morning in their traditional Christmas spirit to pack and later distribute 254 hampers.

For Sonya Alleyne, the district Governor-elect for next year, the first Barbadian female being elevated to this position, service clubs such as Rotary have a critical role to play, especially at this time.

Assisting families with hampers and in other ways is a year-round project. Alleyne reported that Pricemart donated 40 000 dollars from their philanthropy programme, which has allowed the club to donate an additional 600 hampers in 2020.

“We still have a lot of work to do. We can’t do it all. We look to how we can help to improve lives,” Alleyne noted. The donations are used to help persons in communities across the island who have lost jobs, are ill or have other major needs.

Marketing Manager at Digicel, Risha Daniel, recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the club for 41 000 dollars while support has also come from Channell and Trimart supermarkets, who are donating three cents from every dollar spent at their five locations to help in areas such as food supplies and home repairs.

“We know about the good work that Rotary does,” said Daniel, who described the Christmas Hand-up project as “an amazing initiative”.

The Rotaract Club of Barbados South plays a key role in supporting Rotarian initiatives. President Dana Walcott said this youth arm of Rotary accepts members from 18 years old.    

“This year what we have seen is a demand for a lot more assistance. The increase in demand has been exponential,” said George Connolly, the President-elect of Rotary Club of Barbados South for 2021.

“What we have tried to do as best we could is to step up our assistance programme and our lobbying for fund raising through groups like Digicel.

“This is a small but important step in offering assistance to those we think are in absolute dire need,” Connolly added.

(HH)

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