A telethon in Guyana has received pledges of more than US$60,000 (Guy34.6 million) in the latest Caribbean fundraiser for the Asian tsunami victims.
Despite its billing as one of the poorest countries in the hemisphere, Guyana has been actively joining the aid effort.
President Bharrat Jagdeo, Tuesday (04 Jan 2005) announced a grant of $50,000 to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to support humanitarian work among the region's children.
A local newspaper, The Kaiteur News, said it had also raised $60 000.
Almost 150,000 were killed and 500,000 were rendered homeless from the Dec. 26 (2004) tsunami which swept across six Asian nations.
In many other Caribbean countries, governments, the private sector and communities have been involved in similar fund-raising.
This week the Jamaica government set up a special national tsunami aid fund, to which it made an initial contribution of $244 412 (J$15 million).
Vulnerability
"I appeal to Jamaicans both at home and in the Diaspora to give as generously, as this is truly a global effort," Jamaican prime minister P.J. Patterson said in a statement."Our common humanity deserves no less."
Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados government have also pledged contributions.
The Trinidad Prime Minister Patrick Manning said that the Asian disaster had brought the vulnerability of his own country to the fore and his government would strengthen its national disaster management plan which he said had certain deficiencies.
The issue of a coordinated regional response to the disaster is being discussed this week at a meeting of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) Council of Ministers in Georgetown.
