Churches to receive hurricane grants next month

Minister of Local Government and Community Development, Desmond McKenzie, has announced that 419 churches that were damaged during the passage of Hurricane Melissa are set to receive grants from the Government in April.

The grants will be paid out under the Government's $75 million Community Church Clean-Up and Restoration Initiative. McKenzie provided details during the Kingston and St Andrew Governance Conference, held at the Jamaica Conference Centre in Kingston on Wednesday. McKenzie indicated that approximately 6,000 churches across Jamaica were affected during the passage of Hurricane Melissa last October. He said the Government, through the Social Development Commission (SDC), conducted assessments across the most affected parishes to determine the levels of damage sustained. He noted that the handover will take place in St Elizabeth, which has the bulk of the churches impacted.

The SDC recently indicated that it had received applications from churches in St Elizabeth, Westmoreland, St James, Trelawny and Hanover. The assessment of the religious institutions was supported by the municipal corporations and various community groups.