SXM Chinese community donates to local Foundations
On Wednesday, March 4, 2020, the St. Maarten Chinese Community Foundation donated 140 individual boxes of assorted food stuff to several community Foundations on Sint Maarten who are responsible for providing social assistance to vulnerable persons. These Foundations routinely provide food packages to assist those in our community who need this assistance.
As a proud member of the Sint Maarten community, the St. Maarten Chinese Community Foundation wanted to give back to St. Maarten in the best way possible. “We love Sint Maarten and because this is our home, we want to help out however we can. The Chinese Foundation President Johnny Mo, stated, it was decided to help by providing foodstuff to those who need it the most.” Because distributing of food is not a day-to-day operation of the St. Maarten Chinese Community Foundation, the board reached out to Emil Lee as former Minister of VSA who helped the network to organize this donation. He contacted workers within the Department of Community Development, Family and Humanitarian Affairs (CDFHA) of the Ministry of VSA to assist. This department says Lee, has extensive networks of relationships with Non-profit organizations and foundations that provide assistance to the vulnerable groups within the community. According to Emil Lee, “CDFHA is one of the most instrumental departments within Government and they provide “boots on the ground” assistance to the Community.” After being notified, CDFHA came up with a plan for distribution in order to spread the donation to those persons most in need.
They settled to provide assistance to the following organizations plus some of Social Services & CDFHA’s clients. The Foundations that received the donation are: The Methodist Church (Cole Bay & Philipsburg), Meals on Wheels, Belvedere Community Center, Christian Faith Ministry, Bible Baptist Church, South Reward Community Collective and the Seventh day Adventist Church (Cole Bay). All the Foundations expressed appreciation when they received this donation to better assist the vulnerable in the community. The St. Maarten Chinese Community Foundation would like to thank the Foundations for continuing to provide assistance to the community of Sint Maarten. “We need to continue to work together to make Sint Maarten better”, says the Foundation Secretary Kenneth Wong.
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