Emergency Cash Transfers to 25,000 most vulnerable people affected by Hurricane began Monday

​Emergency Cash Transfers to 25,000 most vulnerable people, or approximately 8,300 households affected by Hurricane Maria, are expected to begin from Monday. This was announced by Ms Helen Royer, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Social Services, Family & Gender Affairs, at a press briefing this morning. The initiative is being undertaken by the government of Dominica, in collaboration with the World Food Program, and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF).
 
Royer said those receiving help under the government’s public assistance program will “automatically be included, or have been included. We have already deposited the monies, and payments will begin today, for those who are already on the public assistance program. Foster children were included automatically, so the parents of foster children will also be part of this group to receive the cash transfer.”
 
Marco Selva, Head of Mission of the World Food Program said the objective of the initiative is to ensure that people affected by Hurricane Maria can recover. He noted that the program will be limited to three months. He added, “It will go from EC$240 up to $645 a month, depending on the number of the children in the household”. He described the program as “shock response social protection.” Selva said the program’s objective is to reach the people most affected by Maria.
 
Aleks Lazovski, Social Protection Specialist at UNICEF, also confirmed that persons who meet the criteria for the program, include those who are already receiving help under the government’s social program, and households that lost their form of livelihood or main source of income as a result of the hurricane, will be included.
 
According to Lazovski, to be a beneficiary under the program, the following must be met: households must include pregnant or lactating women; households with persons with disabilities, severe chronic illnesses, and elderly persons; households headed by elderly persons and single elderly persons; households headed by single mothers and single males. In addition, women and girls at risk of exploitation, large households with high dependency ratio, households severely destroyed by the hurricane, people who live in collective centers and those who live in emergency shelter are eligible for assistance under the program, which will be implemented by the Ministry of Social Services, Family & Gender Affairs.