Fishers recently affected by inclement weather will receive some form of compensation from the government shortly.
Commerce Minister Emma Hippolyte made the announcement Monday at a press conference, adding that all fishers must be registered.
“For Hurricane Beryl, we had fishers who were registered and those who were not. Based on the conversation we’ve had with the prime minister we are going to provide some support to all registered fishers,” the minister told reporters.
Hippolyte calls on all unregistered fishers “to get themselves registered; that’s important, especially in the Soufriere area. The fisheries officer is on the ground now trying to ensure this happens because we really want to provide some compensation to all the fishers within the next two weeks,” she said.
Out of the fishers who were affected, “almost 50 per cent (were) registered and unregistered so we are calling on those that are unregistered” to take the necessary steps “so that when the prime minister writes his cheque they are included,” the minister said, adding that “we are trying to see how we can assist those persons that were affected in February.”
Joachim Cherubin, a fisherman from Soufriere, told online media Loop News earlier this year “I learnt a lesson from the hurricane I will never forget. It is the first time I experienced something like this.”
According to Loop, the fisherman lost both his boats during Hurricane Beryl which struck in June of this year.
The Commerce Minister also spoke on ‘Koudmen Soufriere’ which takes place on November 3rd this year.
“We had a very successful ‘Koudmen Soufriere’ last year. This year we’ve decided to have it on the first Sunday in November (because) we don’t want it to clash with Jounen Kwéyòl,” the minister said.
“We’ve invited all the communities in Soufriere to … discuss the project that they want in their community and as parliamentary rep, the Soufriere Regional Development Foundation and the Soufriere Constituency Council, we’ll come together to give all the communities the support required to implement that particular community project,” she said.
The minister noted that this is being done “to build on that cultural heritage of (communities) supporting each other, that’s fundamental in everything that we do. That is the basis on which our society has developed and we have every reason to embrace that culture of ‘Koudmen’; communities working together to deal with the situation at hand.”
Furthermore, she stated, that the activity brings togetherness.
“Soufriere is leading the way in this area. Last year you may (have seen) persons coming in to paint the cemetery walls; the SDA was very instrumental in beautifying certain areas in the community. We are using that moment to call all of Soufriere to share their projects with us,” she said.