PHILIPSBURG–White and Yellow Cross Care Foundation (WYCCF) said on Tuesday that its home repair programme is currently “on the right track” and the repairs to fifty Hurricane Irma-damaged homes of its clients are expected to be completed before the hurricane high season.
WYCCF had conducted a social assessment of all of its 200 clients who live at home and a total of 80 follow up technical assessments were made, taking into account issues such as income, pension, living circumstances and extent of damage.
The homes of 30 clients were later identified as needing financial and physical home-repair assistance. After “careful consideration and evaluations,” the Foundation said it is meeting its target and has extended its project proposal from repairing 50 homes.
“Currently a total of 40 houses are approved for reconstruction, whereby four houses are finished and another 12 are currently under construction. In the upcoming months before hurricane high season, this project will be finalised [meeting – Ed.] the objective of 50 homes,” it said.
The house repair project is supported by the candidates who are enrolled in the retraining in construction project for persons in the tourism/hospitality sector who became unemployed after Irma. WYCCF spearheaded the retraining project with funding received from the Dutch early recovery funds.
Twenty-three construction trainees are “a welcome addition to the home recovery programme.” In addition to WYCCF, the trainees lend a hand to other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that lost their offices and facilities for children, adults and senior programmes during the storm.
WYCCF said its District Nursing team and other staffers were at the homes of clients during and after Hurricane Irma, offering assistance and assessing the most urgent needs. While dealing with emergency assistance, the Foundation said it realised the urgent need to set up and apply for a middle-term recovery project with the vision that basic care for the elderly, physically and mentally challenged living at home can only be achieved if there is a minimum of core living conditions – in other words a home that is safe and dry.
The foundation’s board and management decided to write a project application to the Dutch government requesting early relief financial assistance. Three projects were submitted, the first of which targeted the reconstruction of 45 homes for the most vulnerable clients under the care of WYCCF. The Foundation thanked the Dutch Government, its staff, contractors, clients and the partners related to the three projects in the construction and care areas for their level of collaboration.
This is one of the early recovery projects financed from the Dutch Recovery Fund for St Maarten, under the auspices of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations. Seven million euros has been made available during the early recovery phase for projects that will have a direct positive impact on the population of St. Maarten.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/74847-wyccf-home-repair-project-on-right-track
View comments
Hide comments