The Belize Red Cross has been working tirelessly to bring some relief to the flood victims. While aid is getting to the families, with so many thousands affected in so many ways, it’s been hard to meet every need. Today Extra House in Belize City gave the effort a big push when it donated five hundred boxes of meal packages. 7_NEWS_ was on hand for the worthy donation at the popular city shopping center.
Lily Bowman, Director General – Belize Red Cross
“We have our teams out doing house to house assessments in the villages of Sarawee, Hope Creek, Mullins River. We have been cooking hot meals for the people in the shelters but now since people are moving out, we’ve set up a tent in Hope Creek and so we still will be providing those hot meals from under the tent. In the meantime our distribution teams are out taking food, clothing, water, hygiene sets, kitchen sets, whatever the people need because our assessments will tell us what specifically the families need.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
And more food will be coming their way I would imagine based on this latest donation from Extra House.
Lily Bowman,
“Definitely, this is a huge donation but also the headquarters is like a warehouse right now so there is a lot more help coming their way. We are not forgetting the people in the north although a lot of concentration is on the south because it has been hit the worse, there are still many people in Corozal and Orange Walk that need our help so we are also sending supplies that way.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
Will some of these supplies go up north or just strictly for the south?
Lily Bowman,
“It depends on the donor. We always do what the donor asks us to do. If they leave it to our discretion then we might split it but it depends on what they want.”
Victor Chawla, Co-Owner Extra House
“I was going through the news on Tuesday and Wednesday and I saw a lot of people were suffering down there without food and it really came across my heart to do something for the Belizean people, they’ve been helping us for so many years. So we tried to do the packages. In this package we have corn flakes, we have sausages, we have noodles, and at least a single kit and provide for a family for a week.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
I understand there is a total of 500 packages?
Victor Chawla,
“500 packages, each worth around $30 each.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
Would you like to see these packages donated to the flood victims only in the south or would you like to see Red Cross distribute it evenly to all flood victims?
Victor Chawla,
“I would say Red Cross could look at it to distribute it how they want to distribute it.”
The donation is valued at fifteen thousand dollars.
