THE Salvation Army once again partnered with the Private Sector Commission to bring happiness and cheer to hundreds of less fortunate persons during the festive season with the continuation of its annual Christmas Hamper Distribution.

This year the distribution exercise saw the sharing of some 1100 food hampers to mostly senior citizens and persons with disabilities, who were all too happy to receive them, and ever so grateful for how much the hampers would help them out.

“It’s a great help to me, is I alone living,” shared 83-year-old Ameena Azeez, who has been coming for some years now for the assistance of the hampers. “I must say thank God that I’m here and thank God for all the sisters and the brothers in the Army, they give me a great help; without them I couldn’t achieve what I having today, so I give praise and thanks to everybody.”

They were also several members of the Guyana Society for the Blind, they too were overwhelmingly grateful for the gesture. “We look forward for this every year and we’re so happy that they can be doing this and hope that it can get bigger and better and thank those on board Mr. [Edward] Boyer and others, and we wish all of them all the best for the upcoming years.,” said Lavena Powlette, who was accompanied by her friend Hazel Morris. Both Powlette and Morris are visually impaired.

Morris said the hamper came at just the right time for her as she will be celebrating her 53rd birthday this Saturday and is looking forward to it now. “We feel great. It’s a time of the year when we look forward to cheers from John Public,” Morris said.

British High Commissioner, Greg Quinn and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Country Representative, Sophie Makonnen, were both on site to help distribute the hampers to the patrons. Prior to the distribution, both made remarks to those eagerly awaiting the hampers, where they noted there joy to be part of the event.

Quinn reminded that the festive season is one to think of the less fortunate, and commended the Salvation Army for keeping that as their mandate. “There are people who are less fortunate than ourselves and we must remain thankful that we have organisations like the Salvation Army that never forget that message. We should all commend them for the sympathy that they continue to provide,” Quinn said.