Trinidad and To­ba­go has launched a na­tion­wide hu­man­i­tar­i­an re­lief cam­paign for earth­quake-rav­aged Venezuela, with col­lec­tion points open­ing across the coun­try and a dis­as­ter re­lief fund es­tab­lished to re­ceive pub­lic and cor­po­rate do­na­tions.

The ini­tia­tive was an­nounced af­ter a joint pub­lic and pri­vate sec­tor stake­hold­er meet­ing con­vened to­day by the Min­istry of For­eign and CARI­COM Af­fairs and the Min­istry of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment on the in­struc­tions of Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

The meet­ing was at­tend­ed by For­eign and CARI­COM Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers and Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Khadi­jah Ameen, along with se­nior rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the Min­istries of De­fence, Health and Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty, in­clud­ing the Of­fice of Dis­as­ter Pre­pared­ness and Man­age­ment.