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Best Sunshine and Karidat distribute relief items
Karidat continues to hand out relief items to various parishes on Saipan.
Vice speaker Rafael Demapan and Imperial Pacific CSO Tao Xing help Karidat volunteers distribute relief items at Mt. Carmel Parish yesterday. (Frauleine S. Villanueva)
For their third day, Karidat distributed at Mt. Carmel and San Antonio parishes in Chalan Kanoa and San Antonio. The usual 100 bags were increased to 200 for Mt. Carmel.
“We know some villages have greater population than others,” Karidat executive director Laurie Ogumoro said. “We’re trying to go by the village size.”
Members of the CNMI 19th Legislature once again helped in handing out goods. Present in yesterday’s distribution were Vice Speaker Rafael S. Demapan (R-Saipan) and Reps. Edwin K. Propst (Ind-Saipan) and John Paul Sablan (R-Saipan).
Today, Karidat will be at St. Jude, San Vicente, and Santa Soledad parishes.
On Wednesday, the organization distributed goods at Kristo Rai Parish in Garapan and San Jose Parish in Oleai.
Aside from the bags containing food, hygiene kits and butane gas, items from Best Sunshine International, Ltd. such as rice and water, were also distributed.
“Whatever donations come in, we try to distribute them,” Ogumoro said.
In-kind donations worth $50,000 were given by Best Sunshine to Karidat for distribution.
Officials and volunteers from BSI also personally came to the distribution site to hand out items as well. Tao Xing, CSO of Imperial Pacific, which is BSI’s mother company, and BSI chief operating officer Matthew Harkness were present.
“My role at the company is corporate social responsibility. It’s defining the relationship with the community and identifying opportunities for us to contribute and be part of the community and make sure that our business benefits the local,” Tao said.
He added that they continue to source and ship items as well as help in repacking the goods to be ready for distribution.
“I know this is a difficult time, but I truly believe that there is a better future lying before us,” Tao said.
