The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs for Barbados, Ms. Billie Miller, has called on Member States of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to extend a helping hand to El Salvador, which is desperately trying to recover from a powerful earthquake, which ravaged the Central American country recently.
Addressing the opening of the Seventh Meeting of the Community Council of Ministers, the second highest decision-making body of CARICOM, in Guyana on 29 January, 2001, Ms. Miller pleaded with her counterparts to raise more consciousness about the devastation in El Salvador.
The Association of Caribbean States (ACS), of which El Salvador is a member, is coordinating relief efforts out of Trinidad and Tobago in response to requests for medicines, can foods, money and baby items, among other things.
“It is important that we raise more consciousness of this Region,” Ms. Miller told the Meeting, noting that the earthquake disaster in El Salvador was quickly removed from the front pages of newspapers, while the devastating earthquake which hit India last week remains a headline item in regional and international news.
Among the serious problems now facing El Salvador are severe damage to 93,000 homes, 500 landslides, major destruction of six hospitals, loss of 1,000 lives and damage to 300 churches.
The Barbados Deputy Prime Minister, who is chairing the Council Meeting, appealed to CARICOM States to send donations to Trinidad and Tobago where the ACS is headquartered and from where a central distribution point has been established to collect and dispatch donations to El Salvador.
The condolence of the Governments and peoples of the CARICOM was conveyed to the Governments and peoples of both El Salvador and India through the Council forum by Secretary-General Mr. Edwin Carrington who also observed the “horrendous loss of life and destruction of property…” experienced by the two nations recently.
Persons wishing to contribute to the recovery effort of El Salvador may contact the ACS at telephone number (868) 623 2783 for more information.
