TORONTO -- Months after a highly destructive hurricane swept through the Bahamas, many families remain in dire need of basic resources, including food.
Canadian volunteers with GlobalMedic are now working to assemble and send emergency food kits to those in need.
About 1,400 families in areas that were affected by Category 5 Hurricane Dorian will be receiving these kits.
The hurricane swept through the island, causing catastrophic damage, on Sept. 1, 2019.
In the months that followed, many people in the Bahamas were left strongly affected by not only the hurricane, but also the sharp decline in the tourism industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some residents were just starting to get their lives back in order six months after the hurricane hit when all of a sudden no one was able to travel to the island anymore, leading to many people losing their jobs.
The global shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed, and in some cases stopped, any progress made in rebuilding on the island, according to GlobalMedic.
Rahul Singh, the executive director of GlobalMedic, said these volunteers are now trying to help feed those in need, which he calls a step in the right direction.
The emergency food kits being assembled by the volunteers include grains, beans, rice, peas, and grits. The kits will be loaded onto a shipping container on Wednesday before being railed onto a boat in Halifax and then shipped out to the harbour in Freeport, Bahamas.
