(CARICOM photos)CARICOM Chairman, Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell of Grenada and Secretary-General Irwin LaRocque on Wednesday toured several hurricane- devastated islands and said an international donors conference will be convened to mobilise the “significant resources” required for the recovery effort.A release from the CARICOM Secretariat yesterday said that the touring delegation included Ronald Jackson, Executive Director of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), which is the CARICOM Institution coordinating the regional hurricane disaster response; and Captain Errington Shurland, Executive Director of the Regional Security System (RSS).Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne joined the Delegation for the tour of Barbuda where Government’s assessment shows more than 90 percent of the buildings on the island were ruined. The release said that Browne confirmed that all Barbuda residents have been relocated to Antigua, with just a contingent of military personnel remaining to provide security.“I’m very grateful for the visit by the CARICOM Chairman, Secretary-General and other members of the delegation. It shows we have other Caribbean brothers and sisters who are standing in solidarity with us,” Browne said after taking the delegation on a walk-though Barbuda’s devastated capital, Codrington.“Clearly, this is a very difficult time for Antigua and Barbuda and we are very appreciative of the support and, certainly, all of the pledges that will be made,” he added.In the British Virgin Islands, where the delegation toured affected communities and met with Premier Dr Orlando Smith and Government and Disaster Management officials, the release said that the focus is on meeting critical immediate needs such as water and food supplies while simultaneously working on arrangements for getting students back into schools. Smith noted that the Government headquarters building is among those destroyed and his office has had to be re-located to the main hospital building.Anguilla’s Chief Minister Victor Banks, who joined the CARICOM Delegation on the tour of his island where the main hospital, schools and 90 percent of the homes were damaged, said he is also working to address the need for food, water, building supplies and electricity and confronting any challenges to the critical tourism sector.The release said that Mitchell, acknowledged “the extremely high level of devastation” in these and the other affected islands, and said substantial international support is required to build on the ongoing financial and other contributions.“The plan is to organise a regional and international aid conference that can help to get significant pledges towards the reconstruction effort of these countries. This will be similar to what we did in Grenada (after hurricane Ivan devastated the Island in 2004) and we got significant support”, Mitchell said.He added that the requested support must include psychological counselling to help affected persons overcome the trauma of the hurricane Irma experience. “We will use our regional and international contacts to leverage the required support”, he added.LaRocque said that given the scale of the destruction, countries and institutions in the international community must be willing to build on the current relief efforts by the Caribbean Community and he said invitations are already being sent to development partners for the soon to be convened Donors Conference.“The governments can’t do it alone. We need to mobilise international help from partner countries in the international community. We hope to have this donor meeting as soon as possible and the mobilisation has started,” the Secretary-General said.CDEMA has been facilitating much of the regional collaboration through a hub in Antigua for the affected Eastern Caribbean islands, and one in Jamaica for the Western Caribbean, including the Turks and Caicos Islands, Haiti and The Bahamas.
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