Young volunteers are being sought for a post-Ivan clean-up project that will begin in the second week of October.

The project, which will begin in Negril, will use volunteers who have been recruited by the Office of National Reconstruction (ONR), the National Youth Service and the Jamaica Combined Cadets. They will work on weekends, for the most part.

“We’re going to do an islandwide campaign, so we will go into certain areas and help with the clean-up process,” said communication liaison officer for the ONR Tracey Hamilton. “We’re looking at Negril to start with, for the obvious reason that it is a tourist destination. It’s one of the areas that’s a prime income earner for Jamaica.”

The group, she added, will liaise with the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) and relevant parish officials to determine which areas were most devastated.

Hurricane Ivan battered the island between September 10 and 11 and the clean-up process is already well underway. However, there are areas where work still needs to be done.

The hurricane damage assessment being conducted by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security ends today. According to director of social security Faith Innerarity, the ministry has completed over 43,000 assessments to date, which represent approximately 70 per cent of the total damage sustained islandwide.

Through the collaborative efforts of the Labour and Social Security Ministry, the ONR and the Ministry of Finance and Planning, strategies have been implemented for the processing and delivery of benefits to affected persons.

The labour ministry, assisted by a team from the Electoral Office of Jamaica, began processing assessment forms last Friday and payments will be disbursed to the beneficiaries as soon as processing of the applications is completed.

The Social Security Ministry has so far distributed relief supplies to approximately 70,000 families islandwide, and has spent some $18 million to assist persons who have been affected by the hurricane.