By Lincoln DePradine

Grenadians in Canada have contributed to efforts at resettling 17 nationals in their Caribbean homeland, where a massive fire destroyed five houses.

The fire, in March, swept through an area in Chantimelle, St Patrick, Grenada’s northernmost parish.

Those displaced by the fire and left homeless included a toddler and a 65-year-old.

Joseph Andall, the MP for the area and the minister of foreign affairs, immediately appealed for assistance, saying shelter is needed until the families can get back to their own facilities.

Weeks later, a “Diaspora Brunch’’ was held at the Jamaican Canadian Centre in a joint venture spearheaded by Grenada Disaster Preparedness Toronto (GDPT) and the Grenada Hospitals Assistance Fund, and involving other representatives of the Network of Grenadian Community Organizations in Canada (NOGCOIC), as well individual Grenadian-Canadians.

The NOGCOIC was established at the initiative of Grenada’s Consul General Gerry Hopkin, who attended the brunch. He thanked the hundreds of attendees, who participated in the event, despite rainy weather, “and contributed in one way or another to make this relief effort a success’’.

Hopkin said the event – which was “planned, promoted, and executed within 21 days’’ – was a “splendid collaborative relief effort”.

Unison Joseph, president of GDPT, told The Caribbean Camera that $7,270 has been transferred to the “Chantimelle Fire Victims Relief fund”.

The NOGCOIC, which has a WhatsApp chatroom for information sharing, aims at heightened “coordination of activities to ensure increased support and collaboration among Grenadian organizations”, said Hopkin.

“The ultimate goal is to reduce – and eventually eliminate – unnecessary, counter-productive conflicts between Grenadian organizations, and to optimize the pooling of our community’s efforts to harness our resources in the Diaspora for our individual growth and for the sustainable development of our homeland.”