IF DONATIONS FOR the Salvation Army’s mid-year appeal do not increase, the organisation will have to consider scaling back some of its programmes, the Army’s divisional commander for Barbados and St Lucia has revealed.Major Dewhurst Jonas said that unless Barbadians could find the means to dig a little deeper into their pockets, the situation could become “critical”.“We would have to find ways to cut spending. We obviously can’t compromise on food quality nor on paying our bills, but we may have to reduce some of our donations,” he told the Press yesterday during an open day as part of the Army’s 112th anniversary week of celebrations.Jonas said that mid-year appeals had been sent out to corporate Barbados as well as to individuals, but the response has been slow.“These funds would guide us from now until the end of November when we launch our Christmas appeal. If things continue as they have, it could get critical for us,” he said.Jonas said the Army understood that Barbados, as well as the rest of the world, was in recession and as such a drop in revenue was to be expected. But he said the donations so far for the mid-year appeal were less than half of the amount collected over the same period last year.“We have collected around $21 000 so far compared to $47 000 for the same period in 2009. We were estimating to have around $35 000, what with the recession, but we did not expect donations to be so low.“As such we want to remind the public the mid-year appeal letters are out and we need to hear back from them. “We need people to be conscious that we are actually feeding more people than ever due to the recession, so it is imperative to continue to support the Salvation Army. Please share your little with those who have none,” he said.One of the things they noticed, Jonas said, was that many of the appeals sent by mail had been returned because the recipients had moved. Therefore he asked anyone who was accustomed to giving at this time to do so again whether or not they received an appeal letter.In addition to money, the Salvation Army is also in need of furniture and functioning appliances, as well as clean clothes. (CA)
