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PNCR’s
Response to the Guyana Flood Situation
From:
The General Secretary, To:
All Party Overseas Groups Matter:
The PNCR’s Response to the Guyana Flood Situation
Date: February 5, 2005
The Leader of the People’s
National Congress Reform and Leader of the Parliamentary Opposition,
Mr. Robert H. O. Corbin, MP, extended his visits to the flood
hit areas of the East Coast by going to Bare Root South and Dazzel
Housing Scheme on Sunday, February 6, 2005. During his visit the
Party Leader made house to house tours and distributed 180 hampers
of cleaning materials and bottled water. Hampers were also
distributed to shelters on the East Coast. It is interesting to note
that some three weeks after the floods overwhelmed the East Coast of
Demerara, Mr. Corbin had to use a boat as the means of
transportation in this area. In his interaction with the
residents of the area, the burning issue for the residents was would
the flood waters recede
as they are most anxious to get back to their normal way of life. Mr. Corbin was
accompanied by senior officials of the Party, including Mrs. Carol
Corbin, Mrs. Deborah Backer, MP, and Mr. Basil Williams, MP, both
Vice-Chairpersons of the Party, Ms. Supriya Singh, Director of the
Party’s Communications Unit, Mrs. Volda Lawrence, MP, Director of
Human Services of the Party and Mrs. Ann Green, Executive Member of
the National Congress of Women (NCW), the women’s arm of the
Party. On hand also were members of an international media team,
which is currently in Guyana and which included a representative of
CNN and well known Guyanese journalists, Godfrey Wray and Edgar
Henry. The visit of Mr. Corbin to the East Coast was complemented by
activities of other regional officials of the Party. During this period, the
Party’s PR section has been dealing with the flood crisis through
a series of programmes on HBTV Channel 9 on its programme, Nation
Watch. After February 15, 2005 when the flooding assumed crisis
proportions on the East Coast, Georgetown and West Demerara, the
Leader of the PNCR, Mr. Robert Corbin, MP, decided along with
his Party that its PR efforts must be directed towards ventilating
the various elements of this crisis, providing accurate information
and helping citizens stricken by the flood.
In the absence of access to the
state media, the Party began a telethon during which it solicited
assistance for citizens who were affected. To ensure that the
telethon continues, the management of HBTV Channel 9 allocated two
(2) slots during the day for this exercise, at 12:00 to 12:30 pm and
from 9:00 to 10:00 pm in the evenings. The telethon has been a good
device for bringing to the public, Executives of the Party and other
resource personnel accurate information on the flood situation. As
programmes in this regards have been aired, the information received
about the flood in different parts of the country has been updated.
The anchors of this programme at
various times have been Ms. Supriya Singh, Mrs. Deborah Backer, MP,
Mr. Joseph Hamilton and other executives of the Party.
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