WILLEMSTAD - With the help of volunteers and Dutch financial support to the Red Cross, food parcels were distributed to help the population during the pandemic. The emergency support from The Hague will now be converted into structural support via the government on 1 May 2021, which means that the Red Cross will stop coordinating. "We refer new registrations to SOAW."
The organization recently announced in a press release that the Red Cross will stop coordinating food aid. “We coordinated food aid for a year, but because this aid has become structural in nature, we as the Red Cross can no longer offer this, that's not what our organization is for,” says Maisy Scharbay, branch manager of the Red Cross in Curaçao.
Transition
The Red Cross announced at the end of last year that they must stop providing emergency support, which was by definition temporary. “There are currently talks about the transition from the Red Cross to the local government, where that responsibility therefore belongs,” says Erwin Arkenbout, head of the Dutch Representation in Willemstad (VNW).
Arkenbout: “In principle, the transition must take place on 1 May. The Netherlands is prepared to continue funding until 1 October 2021, if assistance is also provided to undocumented migrants (who need it). But this agreement is not quite complete yet.”
Minister of Social Development, Labor and Welfare (SOAW) Hensley Koeiman says in a response that he regrets that the Red Cross has already released this message, without coordinating this with the ministry.
Decreasing donations
The Food Bank, which had been responsible for the distribution of food aid for some time, also stepped out of the process last year. “We stopped distributing the food parcels in August 2020,” says Stacia Illidge, Secretary of the Food Bank. “There were several reasons for that. The donations decreased when people thought that we received funds from the Netherlands for the food aid. But the Red Cross got the funds, we did not. We only did the distribution, but because of this we are now running dry.”
Since then, the Food Bank has been struggling with financial problems. “Over the past year, we have helped more than 18,000 households with food parcels. Now there are around 7,000. But we can currently no longer accept new applications due to a lack of funds,” said the secretary. Most of these packages are continuous. The number of new people is much smaller than at the beginning of the crisis.
Last year, the Food Bank sometimes received up to 400 new registrations per day. “We receive a number of new registrations per week in this second lockdown. But we cannot help these people. We refer them to SOAW. People often call us first, because we have gained a lot of recognition in the past year.”
Distribution
In addition to the financial problems, distribution at the Food Bank also became a problem during the second lockdown. “We no longer have access to the same number of people who can help us with the distribution,” says Illidge. "Not everyone was vaccinated, for example, and the number of exemptions is also smaller than last year during the lockdown.”
There are mainly practical issues that prevent everyone from receiving a package. “We need cooperation with various agencies to ensure that the distribution runs smoothly, such as the police and the Curaçao Volunteer Corps (VKC). During the lockdown last year, everyone was still at home. Now everyone is working online. We do not have enough volunteers to help. We do on Saturdays, then we have enough. But during the week not everyone can pick up and deliver the parcels, because they are working.”