00:00The donations have been coming in steadily and the Marine Services Association of Trinidad and Tobago
00:07has partnered with the very otters who came to shelter in TNT's waters
00:11to send these relief items off the islands.
00:14And via their boats, nobody is taking, it's not costing anybody anything,
00:21they are volunteering with their boats and their vessels and their manpower to take donations.
00:26As you can see, we have food hampers here.
00:29They also raise funds, GoFundMe, with the cruisers, international fundraisers.
00:34We've had funds raised and we could buy all these food hampers.
00:38We took 200 of those sleeping cots, military cots, donated by the government here
00:43to the people of the island who are going to go up to Karikud.
00:46We loaded those boats yesterday.
00:48The cruisers recently held a very successful fundraising drive,
00:52which MSAT notes also redounds to TNT's benefit.
00:56Tradewinds is a charter company up north and they ran with about five huge catamarans.
01:02I think they spent, they alone spent about US$40,000 as Tradewinds.
01:07We would have easily raised over US$100,000.
01:13So it went back to Pricemart, like I said, Westby's, went to the hardware stores,
01:17they've been going to get sanitizers, baby hampers.
01:21I mean, that went straight back into the economy.
01:24The otters have already made several trips carrying mainly food items.
01:28Now they're asking that members of the public shift their efforts
01:32towards helping the hurricane victims rebuild.
01:35I guess people have lost everything, everything, flat on the ground.
01:38So hammer, shovel, fork, chainsaw, they have no current.
01:46Generator, lots of fuel to go with the generator.
01:49Any kind of building material, I mean, plywood, lumber.
01:55It's a little bit challenging to put on the yachts because these are private vessels.
02:00But, you know, the hammer, the nails.
02:04Personal hygiene and the sanitation items are also high in demand.
02:08Personal hygiene, that would be really, really good for ladies.
02:12Hand sanitizers, insect repellent, bug spray, nets.
02:19If anybody has nets, we've been trying to find some of that.
02:23All those kinds of things to help.
02:25Boots, tall boots, because there are some places that are waterlogged.
02:29We need to get some tall boots in to help to get water to the folks over there.
02:34If you are interested in helping hurricane victims,
02:37you can drop items off at Powerboats in Chagaramas before the end of the week
02:42or contact Mr. Jesse James at 683-5202.
02:48About 10 or 12 vessels have gone up, some are returning.
02:52I think by the end of this week, people who want to go,
02:56it will turn out by the end of this week.
02:58So we'll shut down this end of here probably Tuesday or Friday.
03:01Renassa Katteng, TV6 News.
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