Kemar Saffrey, President of the Barbados Alliance to End Homelessness (BAEH).
Given the spike in COVID-19 cases on the island of Barbados, the Barbados Alliance to End Homelessness (BAEH) is taking no chances and is strictly enforcing the present health protocols, as well as the established curfew for those in the homeless community.
Kemar Saffrey, President of the Barbados Alliance to End Homelessness (BAEH), acknowledged the above recently, in an interview with The Barbados Advocate.
“Well, given the curfew, we have removed the normal time that we have for persons coming into the shelter from 10 p.m. to 9 p.m. to meet the lockdown. People have been giving the homeless the impression that it is a 9 o’clock curfew, but you can come in at 10 p.m. But whatever time the government institutes, we institute as well to basically get them off the streets and get them complying with the law. At the end of the day, we go in compliance with the law, to make sure that we help the government as it relates to making sure the homeless get off the streets at an appropriate and a decent time,” Saffrey indicated.
In terms of ensuring that the homeless follow the required health and safety protocols, he said, “We were always strict, from the time we first started. We were one of the first that were asking questions. So we were asking them questions such as have they been in contact with anybody that traveled lately? Have they been in contact with any tourists on the street if they are begging for money on a day to day basis? Are they showing any symptoms and we list the symptoms that would be known to be associated with the virus and then we do temperature checks.”
“Those are the things that we still continue to do to this day. We continue making sure that we give them masks, we give them a bottle of hand sanitizer, we keep them abreast with what’s going on in terms of the latest information as it relates to the COVID situation. Whatever we have to do to keep them alerted and protected, we do that. Obviously, because of the active approach that we’ve taken, then you can see why our homeless are not among those, even though we have a super spreader, not among those that have been listed, because we are making sure that even the feeders are in compliance and all of us are in compliance, and making sure they too are in compliance with the regulations,” Saffrey further noted. (RSM)