UK Aid ship likely to arrive in SVG this weekend

A cargo ship from the United Kingdom (UK) is expected to arrive in St Vincent sometime this weekend with aid and donations for post-Hurricane Beryl relief.

Kestrel Liner Agencies, a UK-based shipping company, has been at the centre of the aid efforts, and has partnered with commercial suppliers and Europe Caribbean Line and its cargo ship, Beautranga, to make sure supplies of generators, temporary shelter, infrastructure, and rebuilding equipment, as well as containers full of private donations, reach the hardest hit islands as quickly as possible, a release on behalf of the shipping company states.

Kestrel has staff and partners at sites across the Caribbean, and founder and CEO, Andy Thorne, said he knew he needed to do something as soon as he saw scenes of the devastation across the Caribbean Islands.

“I have a personal and professional affinity with the Caribbean going back to the days I first founded our operations,” Thorne is quoted as saying in reference to the shipping organisation he founded 30 years ago. “My first thoughts were for my team, their families and their communities. Then it was about how we could mobilise ourselves and our kind network of suppliers and partners to get aid to the worst hit areas. I have been humbled by the way our team on the ground in the Caribbean has mobilised itself to assist the communities it serves. The least we can do from the UK is to support those efforts.”

The ship, Beautranga, is currently making its way across the North Atlantic and is due to dock in St Vincent on or around August 24,2024 at the Campden Park Container Port, the release further states.

As well as on St Vincent, Kestrel also has long established operations from sites in Guyana, Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and works with a host of other partner agents from further locations throughout the Caribbean.

Kestrel’s operations manager in St Vincent and the Grenadines, Marlon Gibson, said “We know there is a vast array of vital aid, shelter and infrastructure, as well as personally addressed donations, arriving on the Beautranga from the UK. Once docked, we will be working very closely with the logistics and recovery experts from World Food Programme and the National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO) to make sure the right aid, equipment, and specifically addressed donations reach their intended destinations.”

Gibson added, “It’s during times like this I’m proud to work for an organisation like Kestrel, who, upon hearing of the storm, immediately made sure its teams, their families, and our wider communities were okay. Their next question was ‘how can we help?’”

Kestrel Liner Agencies is headquartered in Essex, UK, and has more than 300 global office locations overseeing operations to more than 1250 destinations worldwide.