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Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - (CARICOM Secretariat, Georgetown, Guyana).
Caribbean Community (CARICOM) CARICOM Secretary-General, His Excellency Edwin W.
Carrington, now back from the United Nations Meeting on the Sustainable
Development of Small Island States in Mauritius, today (Monday, January 24,
2005) met with the Deputy Secretary-General, Ambassador Lolita Applewhaite and
staff to assess the impact on staff and operations of the Secretariat, of the
current flood situation in Georgetown and surrounding areas.
The Secretary-General was pleased to note that the Caribbean Disaster Emergency
Response Agency (CDERA) and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) have already
been providing some assistance to Guyana. The Secretariat will be contacting
other regional agencies especially the Caribbean Epidemiological Centre (CAREC),
the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute (CEHI) regarding such response, as
they may be able to provide.
The Secretariat, for its part, is providing assistance to affected staff, both
present and past. Also, staff members have expressed a wish to assist the people
of Guyana and arrangements are being made to enable them to do so.
Meanwhile the Secretariat, which has been closed since Monday, 17 January
because of the significant dislocations suffered by the majority of staff
members, will re-open on Tuesday, January 25. In light of the difficulties still
being experienced by many staff members, the Secretariat will however, operate
at limited capacity to carry on the work of the Community. This involves
pressing ahead with preparations for several upcoming meetings of the Community
including the Sixteenth Intersessional Meeting in Suriname 16-17 February.
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