Having lived in The Bahamas for 10 years,

Hope Grant has a lot of friends in the cluster of islands which are just

half-hour by plane from South Florida. Three weeks before sections of the

country was decimated by Hurricane Dorian, she was in Freeport visiting

friends.

Grant is secretary/treasurer of the

Godfrey Stewart High School Alumni Association (GSHSAA), which operates the

FloBah (FloridaBahamas) organisation in South Florida. With 45 persons killed,

and thousands left homeless by the Category 5 hurricane, they moved swiftly to

assist.

“The Bahamas is very close to home for me,

I taught there for 10 years. I have students there who are doctors now, and we

have past students of Godfrey Stewart there; one of them, she has lost

everything,” said Grant.

Devon Dobson, president of the GSHSAA,

said given the close proximity of The Bahamas to South Florida, it is only

natural they play their part in the recovery effort.

“It’s almost incumbent on us to do

something. We have classmates and very close friends there,” he said.

The FloBah/GSHSAA have assembled a cache of relief items (medical supplies, canned food and water) which will be distributed through Grant and the Rotary Club of Freeport to affected citizens on September 14.

“We’ve raised $170 so far but there are

some pledges from persons and organisations, so we’re getting there,” Dobson

disclosed.

Formed five years, the GSHSAA stages three

fundraising events annually to assist their alma mater which is located in

Westmoreland. One is a cookout in Freeport by Rohan Kerr, one of their members

who owns a restaurant there.

The initiatives help fund Godfrey Stewart

High School’s breakfast programme and sponsor a student for the school term.

Freeport, located in the Grand Bahama area of The Bahamas and Abaco Island, found in the northern region of the country, suffered the most damage from Dorian’s destructive gales which hit on September 2 and 3.

A team of leaders from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) including chairman and St. Lucia Prime Minister Allen Chastanet travelled to the country’s capital Nassau, on September 5 to assess the damage.

Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness says a 120-member

team from the Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) of the Jamaica

Defense Force will be deployed to affected areas for 30 days to assist in

recovery operations.