Dear Dominican Family & Friends at Home and Abroad,

At this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Rebuild Dominica Inc (RBD) Bulletin will seek to provide useful information to our readership. We shall strive to make meaningful proposals to our public, private and NGO sectors and seek to inspire our people to overcome this pandemic.

RBD will provide updates from our healthcare professionals at home and abroad.

RBD will seek to coordinate, communicate, and collaborate with the Government of Dominica best we can. Indeed, we urge the Government of Dominica to utlitize the competence of all Dominicans at home and abroad, without regard to party affiliation. All Dominicans must be united to meet the COVID-19 crisis.

RBD wishes to thank Dr. Dale Dangleben, Dr. Irving Pascal, Dr. Sam Christian, Nurse Sanford, Immunologist Dr. Swinburne Augustine and others who have sought to educate our people on how best to avoid infection by the novel Coronavirus.

RBD wishes to thank its Rebuild Dominica Director Major Francis Richards for devising the sneeze/cough perspex shield (SNEEZE SHIELD) for point-of-service counters as a means to inhibit the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

RBD wishes to thank Rebuild Dominica member Sandra Benjamin for her useful design for homemade face masks to inhibit aerosolized COVID-19 particulate.

Rebuild Dominica Chairperson LaDàna Drigo is congratulated here for exhibiting leadership in public health education outreach by posting COVID-19 advisories from reputable sources to guide our community at this time of need.

Rebuild Dominica, confirmed in the belief that no one man, woman, party or sector can adequately address this crisis, therefore, makes the following requests:

1. That the Government of Dominica immediately convenes Parliament, using teleconference technology, to address the COVID-19 pandemic and craft a National Recovery and Economic Stimulus Act.
2. RBD issues a call for the creation of a National COVID-19 Commission, made up of Government, the Parliamentary Opposition, the private/NGO sector representatives, representatives of Diaspora organizations, and resource persons — science trained and other — with terms of reference as follows:

a. Fashion means to control the COVID-19 pandemic and treat those stricken;
b. Fashion means to ramp up agriculture production and overall food security;
c. Fashion means to boost local industry and so create innovative means of employment;
d. Fashion a COVID-19 Public Education Media strategy to allow the publicly owned media, DBS, GIS, to be accessed by the parliamentary opposition, business sector representatives, farmers, fisher folk, and resource persons to galvanize the nation’s productive capacity to meet the crisis and resultant socio-economic fallout.

We ask our spiritual leaders, thinkers, artists, students and every civic-minded Dominican and friend of Dominica, at home and abroad, to join in this call for wise collective action to save our nation.

We urge everyone to stay safe and follow the public health advisories given.

God bless,

Gabriel Christian
President
Rebuild Dominica Inc