PHILIPSBURG–Make St. Maarten Great Again (MSMGA) Foundation based in the Netherlands is providing much-needed relief items to residents in an effort to help alleviate the burden on families affected by Hurricane Irma, which devastated the country on Wednesday, September 6.
Several containers were brought to the island with relief items. The foundation is donating non-perishable food, water, clothes and hygiene products. Local companies like Prime Distributors and ACE helped the group by providing bags and materials to make the packages for the donations.
The first distribution round focused primarily on preschools and the elderly. “We will provide relief packages to the children via the schools, which will be taken home to their parents or guardians. We are working together with the White and Yellow Cross Foundation, who will assist us per district, to target all the elderly,” said MSMGA.
The group is also collaborating with St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC) by providing packages for single mothers and mothers-to-be who are in need. These packages will include Pampers, wipes and baby food, etc.
Several MSMGA team members, including Patrick Marcelino, Myrle Scarborough and Cerasela Somersall, were able to fly to St. Maarten to oversee the distribution of the items.
The group said it is planning to help St. Maarten in the long term with sustainability and the economy.
“Some of our team members will stay on the island for a longer period of time to get these projects off the ground,” they said.
The Make St Maarten Great Again campaign was founded by a group of young professionals of St Maarten descent living in the Netherlands. The main purpose of the campaign was to provide the necessary relief aid to St. Maarten.
The campaign began with the group soliciting donations from AAA gallery based in the heart of Rotterdam and “within no time it became a national campaign with more than 41 locations throughout the Netherlands. After the campaign took off we were sponsored by various companies that helped us to make this project possible,” the group told The Daily Herald.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/70551-make-st-maarten-great-again-donating-relief-items
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