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CARE gets $425K donation, dodges shutdown
Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, left, poses with Lt. Gov. Victor B. Hocog, far right and Commonwealth Advocates for Recovery Efforts executive director Maxine Laszlo as Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC present the $425,000 check to CARE yesterday at the CNMI Emergency Operations Center on Capital Hill. (Erwin Encinares)
The Commonwealth Advocates for Recovery Efforts received a whooping donation of nearly half-a-million dollars yesterday from Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC, which allowed the non-profit organization to continue operating.
According to CARE executive director Maxine Laszlo, the $425,000 that IPI gave is the largest one-time donation to CARE and would be used to finish rebuilding the homes of families who still need help in the wake of the onslaught of Typhoon Soudelor in August 2015.
Laszlo said the large donation allowed CARE to continue its operations; it nearly shut down due to the lack of funds.
“The [donation] is to finish out our rebuilding operations and all of the things that are a component of that, which is primarily for building materials and paying contractors for things that the Mennonite Disaster Services can’t do such as masonry and such,” Laszlo told Saipan Tribune.
While the IPI donation is the largest donation to CARE, Laszlo noted that both the CNMI government also previously donated a similar amount of over $400,000, in installments. The non-profit organization also received a $303,000 appropriation for fiscal year 2017 and that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has also allocated grants and funding to CARE.
In July 2017, CARE requested the Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation for funding amounting to $650,000, which CARE reportedly did not get.
CARE, created in the wake of Typhoon Soudelor in 2015, took the lead in the rebuilding effort.
