The Rotary Clubs in Guyana have donated $1M to help provide relief to the people of Haiti, who have suffered severe losses due to recent storms and hurricanes.

More donations from the group will also be forthcoming shortly.

At a press briefing held yesterday afternoon at the Georgetown Club, the body’s Assistant Governor Keith Williams  said that the local Rotarians have always attempted to help those in need including victims  of disasters in other Caribbean countries.

He said that the group had helped the people of Grenada after that island was hit by hurricane Ivan in 2004.

The sum of money was a result of contributions from the members of the Rotary Clubs and members of Inner Wheelers in Guyana. At the press conference, Patricia Bender, a representative of the Inner Wheel Club of Georgetown Central, donated $30,000 to the cause.

Williams stated that the efforts of these contributors “are being supplemented by a contribution from the Guyana Rotary Disaster Relief Fund”.

In addition to their financial contribution, Rotary Guyana will be shipping drinking water.

Additionally, it is collaborating with the Caricom Secretariat by contributing suitable items to be part of a container of relief supplies that the Secretariat is organising to be sent to Haiti.

Haiti has recently been hammered by tropical storms Fay and Hanna and hurricanes Gustav and Ike, all in the space of a month.

These recent disasters have taken a further toll on the already impoverished nation, which is regarded as the poorest country in the western hemisphere.