The Tribune

By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT

tsmith-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

TWO local charities are calling on the public to assist them to make certain that those for whom they care feel loved during the upcoming Christmas season.

Heads of Bahamas Red Cross and the AIDS Foundation, Terez Curry and Lady Camille Barnett respectively, reaffirmed the need for donations to make their organisations run properly and fulfil their purpose of helping those who need help.

Mrs Curry, president of the BRC, said donations are always needed and told The Tribune of a new form of fundraising for her organisation during a time when large gatherings are not allowed.

“We are always in need of donations,” she said. “Our financial sustainability continues with the various programmes that we are running and so we are humbly asking the Bahamian public for assistance.

“Before the end of this week, we will launch our ‘Give $5’ donation campaign. We are asking persons just to give five dollars a month to the donation campaign that helps us with our resilience programme in building resilience to hurricane disasters, our climate change programme, our psycho-social support for persons who are facing mental health issues.

“We also need assistance with our legacy programme of our meals on wheels as we seek to provide our Family Islands with their Christmas parcels. Donations are always needed.”

She said generally fundraising is always a challenge and now everything has to be done on a smaller scale.

“Donations continue to be a challenge for the nation as we know through this pandemic we were unable to have our usual fundraising activities,” she said. “We have done some smaller fundraising activities, but not anything that would have yielded the proceeds as we would have received from the larger ones.

“Fundraising is always a challenge. As we go through this pandemic we will continue to raise funds on a smaller scale, more frequently that will help us to remain viable and be able to provide the assistance that the general public needs. Particularly those who are most vulnerable in our communities across the country, not just in New Providence.”

The popular and historic Red Cross Fair was held at Government House every year in March. This had to be put off for two years in a row — 2020 and 2021 — due to the pandemic.

Mrs Curry said in view of the fact that the pandemic is still quite prevalent, there will be no fair in 2022 as well.

“We are not looking to have the fair next year as we don’t anticipate that we will be able to gather in such large numbers by March 2022,” she said. “So even though it’s open air and we can put in the stipulations, I think that we want to be careful, we want to ensure public safety and so we are not planning to have our fair next year.

“It is our hope that by 2023, we can come back in a big way with the fair in March and also in a big way with the ball in January. We are anticipating a smaller event for a ball around February, March, but certainly not on the level we are accustomed to. By 2023 we will be back as we see the tail end, hopefully, of this coronavirus.”

The AIDS Foundation’s priority is children who have either been born with AIDS, or somehow contracted it. Lady Barnett, president of the AIDS Foundation of The Bahamas, said in the short-term what is needed right now for those children are Christmas gifts.

“We absolutely need Christmas gifts for our kids,” she said. “We have about 75 kids of different ages and we’ve been trying to see what we can pull together for them because it’s been a rough year for them, like everybody else.

“So we definitely need donations of gifts. It doesn’t have to be anything big. They will be happy with whatever they receive.”

Lady Barnett wants the public to know how donations work for the AIDS Foundation and in what areas they are used.

“In terms of donations, one of the things we have been able to do is get specific donations earmarked for the work that we have to do,” she continued. “For example, we have a donation for groceries, because we have been providing groceries since March of 2020. We deliver groceries once a week to our families.

“We do that because when the kids were able to come to us for the after-school programme that we ran, we gave them a hot meal and we felt that we should continue to feed them. They don’t need all grocery items so we supplement their grocery items.

“We have a partnership with the Greek Orthodox Church. They have a food kitchen called, ‘The Lord’s Kitchen’ and they give us hot meals every Friday which we take to our families.”

As mental health is very important to the AIDS Foundation, there is a donation specifically for psychological counselling that is ongoing.

Because of the confidentiality policy, the public is unable to see the children, however Lady Barnett itemised their ages and needs for those who want to purchase them gifts.

“With our kids we go up to 24 years of age because they are young people, but they still depend on us,” she said. “The ones from 13 to 24 we like to give them toiletries – basic things like deodorant and soap and toothpaste. The younger ones, we would like them to get some kind of a toy.”

There are 75 children in the care of the AIDS Foundation and their ages and gender are as follows: under one to two years old, three boys and five girls; three to five years, four boys and seven girls; six to 12 years, six boys and 11 girls; 13 to 18 years, nine boys and 18 girls and 19 to 14 years, eight boys and 15 girls.