ST JAMES, Jamaica — Information Minister, Senator Dr Dana Morris-Dixon, has explained that a tour slated for Monday morning, involving Caribbean Community (Caricom) heads of government, agencies and other stakeholders, is geared towards providing an in-depth look at the situation that Jamaica faces following the passage of Hurricane Melissa.

“It’s very important that they get a firsthand view of what has happened in Jamaica, it’s devastating in Westmoreland and St Elizabeth and many other parishes,” she told Observer Online.

“They are going to get to see that today, and we expect as a part of this, we will able to build partnerships for the rebuilding of Jamaica,” she added.

She said that Jamaica has already received aid from its Caricom neighbours and partners, but it was good that they saw what was happening on the ground.

“Many of them have already sent aid to us, and so this is another opportunity for them to stand in solidarity with us, which is a beautiful thing when your sister countries are doing that,” she stated.

Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Dr Andrew Holness, is the current Caricom chair, and Morris Dixon said that he was welcoming his colleague heads of state to see what has transpired.

“A lot of our regional partners have reached out and said they want to help, and so it’s really good to see CARICOM leaders coming to Jamaica today to see for themselves what has happened,” she said.

Further to that, she said it was important that some partners, like the Inter-American Development Bank, are also here to see what is happening, given the support they can provide.

“We also have some of our international development partners also with us today on the tour and the relief effort has been in full swing for a long time and we’ve been ironing out the little issues we’ve been having and ensuring that everybody, no matter where you are, no matter how deep rural you are, that you have access to food,” she highlighted.

“Now we’re kinda moving into the recovery phase, and that is where our international development partners are very important,” she also stated.

Among the arrivals are Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley, Antigua and Barbuda’s Gaston Brown, Dickon Mitchell from Grenada and President of Guyana, Dr Irfaan Ali.