JAMAICANS who are currently being housed in shelters islandwide due to the impending passage of Hurricane Matthew will benefit from water and toiletries, valued at approximately $1 million, from National Commercial Bank Jamaica Limited (NCB).

“NCB urgently responded to the call for assistance from the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) and immediately began making arrangements to dispatch supplies to ODPEM’s central office, which will then deliver to the respective shelters,” the bank said in a release yesterday.

Chief Executive officer of the NCB Foundation, Nadeen Matthews, said the bank decided to step in to offer assistance at this time “as we believe that, as good corporate citizens, we have a responsibility to support the national preparedness and response efforts during this critical time as our nation readies to face Hurricane Matthew”.

She added: “This is the least we could do [as] we recognised the need and had to just step in and assist as best as we can.”

NCB said its efforts were supported by the responsiveness of Prakash Vaswani and Greg Christian.

“NCB is committed to Jamaica and Jamaicans, and we are asking everyone to be neighbourly and safe during the passage of the hurricane,” Matthews said.