GOVERNMENT has doled out about $40 million under its HOMES-CARE initiative so far and with about 13,500 people expected to apply for assistance under the scheme this week, this figure is expected to grow, says Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation permanent secretary Dr Josefa Koroivueta.
Speaking to this newspaper yesterday, he said Nadi would also pose a big challenge for his team logistically.
“We’ve prepared ourselves well for Nadi because we expected a big turnout and that has turned out to be the case,” Dr Koroivueta said.
“We’ve given out 13,500 numbers so that will take us today (yesterday), tomorrow (today) until Saturday with a 12-hour operation to process the applications for each day.
“We’ve set ourselves a target of about 1000 for the special category which includes the older persons, people with disabilities, pregnant women and mothers with young children.”
Dr Korovueta said the Western Division had been the main focus area for the HOMES-CARE program with a single stop made in the North last month.
“So far we have served 34,000 affected families in the Western and Northern divisions. The biggest number has been from Ba which was expected because it was the worst affected area during the two cyclones (Josie and Keni).
In terms of the money that we have distributed through HOMES-CARE, we have given about $40 million as of yesterday.
