Plea for goods to help needy families, elderly

A local charitable organisation that supplies food to over 1 000 Bajan families is struggling and desperately in need of help if it is to continue giving support to the vulnerable, the organisation’s directors have said.

During a press briefing held at the charity’s headquarters in Passage Road, St Michael, on Friday, directors of the Ammar Empowerment Network said the organisation has been experiencing a sharp rise in requests for food, clothing, and basic assistance.

Directors Ambrose and Maria Carter are therefore pleading for increased donations from both citizens and corporate entities.

Last year, the organisation provided aid to approximately 1100 families, many with up to 10 children. On average, each family supported had seven children, touching the lives of over 7 700 individuals.

However, according to Director Ambrose Carter, the need has been even greater since the start of 2025. “Already, we are seeing an increase in demand,” he said.

Director Maria Carter explained that the team has unfortunately been forced to turn away desperate individuals, despite their very real needs, due to a lack of supplies.

“We’ve had to turn away some people this very week, because when you look at the shelves of the pantry—you have a few cans of this, a few cans of that—[but] that is not enough to feed a family.

“We’ve had instances where we would have had families that had 14 children. Obviously if you are only down to a few cans of this and that, you definitely can’t be offering people a can of corn or a can of peas to feed their 14 children,” she stressed.

She added, “The need has grown astronomically over the past couple years, and our pantry has really been depleted. We really are appealing not just to the general public but also to corporate Barbados; to those persons who are responsible for the importing of food items, canned goods, dry goods and things like that, and manufacturers to assist us on a monthly basis. We need consistent, sustained input into our pantry so that we can continue to offer assistance to our clients.”

The organisation is also witnessing a disturbing trend among the elderly. Ambrose Carter said some senior citizens are left to fend for themselves after the loss of a spouse, and for them, simply paying the utility bills is an insurmountable challenge.

“What we are finding is that you have an elderly couple, a partner dies, and then that person is left to carry the funeral expenses, and then the utility bills—the light, the water, the natural gas bill. Sometimes, because they are struggling through that period, in many instances, some utilities are disconnected, and we get the calls for these. This is heartbreaking for us because these are our nation builders, and some of them go through this suffering, sometimes in silence.

“When they call us, sometimes we are the last resort. They don’t know where else to turn,” he explained.

Those persons interested in donating to the charity can send funds to its Republic Bank account number 108072892001 or its Barbados Public Workers Credit Union account number 104948. They can also contact the charity at 436-7873.
(SB)