Dominica
Commonwealth Point of Light 46. Tina Alfred
Tina Alfred, representing Dominica, is a leading volunteer with the humanitarian organisation ‘World Food Programme’, responsible for distributing food to 30,000 people impacted by the devastation of Hurricane Maria in September 2017.
She also lends her expertise to ‘Ground Truth Solutions’, an organisation supported by DFID which provides humanitarian agencies and local governments with direct feedback from those affected by a crisis. She helped to interview 399 people affected by the storm, asking them what support they required and whether they thought the local humanitarian response was effective. Tina was awarded a Queen’s Young Leader award in 2016 for her work as a counsellor at ‘Lifeline Ministries’, a faith based NGO which supports victims of gender based violence.
Tina said:
“I am very honoured and delighted to be a recipient of the Points of Lights daily award. It has been my objective from since the passing of the hurricane to do my best to empower and assist the vulnerable post hurricane Maria disaster. We are in the rebuilding process, however many are still traumatized, therefore putting a smile on someone’s face and uplifting their spirit of Hope and Resilience is the way to move forward.
“I personally lost everything as a result of the hurricane but my mandate from surviving this hurricane is to be focused and be a voice for the voiceless who are in worse traumatic and vulnerable situations where they are unable to represent themselves.”