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Eight 40-foot con­tain­ers packed with re­lief sup­plies were ex­pect­ed to leave the Port of Point Lisas yes­ter­day evening for hur­ri­cane-hit Ja­maica, as Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar sent her love and sup­port to the coun­try she de­scribed as be­ing “dear to her heart.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar vis­it­ed the PLIPDE­CO ware­house in Point Lisas, where work­ers were load­ing the con­tain­ers sched­uled to ar­rive in Ja­maica on Sun­day. Lat­er that day, while speak­ing at a UNDP event in St Clair, she said she launched the hur­ri­cane re­lief dri­ve over the week­end and mo­bilised min­is­ters and stake­hold­ers to co­or­di­nate the na­tion­al re­sponse.

She said it has long been her gov­ern­ment’s prac­tice to stand in sol­i­dar­i­ty with Caribbean neigh­bours dur­ing crises, not­ing that Cu­ba and Haiti are al­so in­clud­ed in the ini­tia­tive. She in­vit­ed the UNDP to join the re­gion­al re­lief ef­fort.