The Seventh-day Adventist Church is committed to assisting a number of government agencies that need help with dispensing essential services to the public.
The Psychiatric Hospital, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and citizens affected by the country’s unprecedented water woes will be on the receiving end of the church’s new outreach initiatives, President of the East Caribbean Conference of Seventh-day Adventist Church, Pastor Danforth Francis has revealed.
As the conference donated a new mobile cart to the Psychiatric Hospital as part of its Community Services Week, Francis revealed that a large portion of the church’s financial contributions would continue to be dedicated to community outreach.
“We cannot expect the government to do everything, and in that sense we are partners with civil society in helping to make Barbados a better place,” said Francis.
Personal Ministries Director of the church’s conference Pastor Dale Haynes revealed church leaders and members felt the need to assist the Psychiatric Hospital beyond the weekly visits spearheaded by the church’s Community Services division. Based on the needs identified by the hospital’s administration, he promised the mobile cart would assist with serving meals to patients.
In response, Director of the Psychiatric Hospital David Leacock said the donation was well timed as it coincided with World Mental Health Day and went hand in hand with a major ongoing government initiative.
“The Ministry of Health and the government of Barbados, as part of its vision 2020 programme, [are] seeking to establish a philanthropy drive towards assisting all the hospitals… in key resources, repairs and we are encouraging people to give back in cash, kind or skills that you have.”
In addition, the Personal Ministries Director revealed that 14 water tanks would be distributed to residents in St. Thomas, St. Andrew and St. Joseph who have been affected by water outages.
“We are aware and we have a programme called Water Outage Relief Drive (WORD) and we provide the tanks and pumps and partner with the Barbados [Water Authority].
“We have also ordered four manual beds for the QEH. They are still in customs, but hopefully, in the next few weeks, we should be able to hand them over because we are also working hand in hand with the QEH. We are also making a commitment from our churches and the conference to deliver monthly supplies so they can always have supplies there,” said Haynes.
Haynes added that on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, officials from the church’s Community Service Organisation would help to feed QEH patients.
During the ceremony, a donation of food supplies from the church’s Women’s Ministries Department was presented to President of the Business and Professional Women’s Club for the Centre for Battered Women. (KS)
