40 less fortunate mothers in East St George get Mother’s Day gifts

An initiative aimed at bolstering the food supply of a number of less fortunate persons in the East St George constituency has been launched and has so far touched over 40 persons.

On Sunday, Mother’s Day, a group calling themselves East St George Cares (ESG Cares), led by lawyer Rochelle Forde-Duncan and endorsed by East St George area representative {{more}}Camillo Gonsalves, with support from telecommunications provider FLOW, visited a number of mothers in the constituency, gifting them with EC$100 food vouchers, which are redeemable at local supermarkets.

According to Forde-Duncan, ESG Cares is made up of about 20 persons from the constituency and aims at helping the most vulnerable in the community by providing groceries, therefore setting them on a footing that will aid them to empower themselves.

“…ESG Cares is an initiative that has been inspired by the Government’s Zero Hunger Initiative,” explained Forde-Duncan on Sunday in Glen, adding, “we intend to do as much as we can to ease the pain and help vulnerable persons”.

Forde-Duncan said that the ESG Cares has adopted a multifaceted approach, with the Mother’s Day initiative reaching out to about 40 less fortunate mothers in the area.

“We recognize that the Unity Labour Party has made tremendous strides in reducing poverty in St Vincent and the Grenadines, to just about three per cent, but we will not be satisfied until it is zero per cent and so coming off of the thrust of the Zero Hunger Initiative, members of the community have decided that it is time for us to do more,” said Forde.

Forde also noted that Minister of Economic Planning, Sustainable Development, Industry, Trade, information and Labour Camillo Gonsalves fully endorses and supports the initiative and worked with them to get it off the ground.

She noted that apart from FLOW, a number of other corporate sponsors, some of whom prefer to remain anonymous, are helping ESG Cares in their effort at “making life better for people”.

The community activist stressed that the group is welcoming persons to join, “as the more hands on deck, the quicker we can get the work done”.

On Sunday, the group paid visits to unsuspecting mothers in five villages, led by data gathered from the constituency that helped them determine the persons who were in need.

Handing out packages on Sunday, Gonsalves said that this first step is the beginning of what they are hoping to be a major outreach programme in East St George.

He said that being spurred by Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves’ Zero Hunger Initiative, the multifaceted approach programme will not only involve food, but job training, employment and housing opportunities.

“When I was getting together with members of the constituency, we were inspired by the effort of the Prime Minister and we thought that we could do something to alleviate hunger in our own small way in East St George. What we have done, we have formed a group called East St George Cares and that group is going to be driving a lot of the charitable and social outreach in the constituency,” explained Gonsalves.

He said that the Mother’s Day initiative took them from village to village, where they were able to give out grocery vouchers sponsored by FLOW.

“FLOW, our corporate partners have been a generous contributor and we hope FLOW will continue to help us in our outreach. The next thing is to have a pilot programme in East St George where we get 20 individuals who are economically disadvantaged and they will get a voucher where they can redeem groceries every month in the East St George area,” explained Gonsalves, who noted that this initiative will in some instances supplement the public assistance programme.

“It would not be cash, but redeemable vouchers for groceries and that is the first step in our own zero hunger initiative,” said Gonsalves, who disclosed that they are also planning a clothing drive and a number of training initiatives.

“We want to help people that are vulnerable with their food supply and this Mother’s Day initiative is our first step and we have a lot more things to come. One of my promises during the election was to make East St George one of the best places to work and one of the best places to live in the country and we have to help the more vulnerable among us,” said Gonsalves.