Vital UK aid ship set to arrive in St Vincent ‘in days’

A cargo ship filled with aid and donations from the UK following the devastating effects of Hurricane Beryl is days away from docking in St Vincent. 

Kestrel Liner Agencies, a UK-based shipping company, has been at the centre of the aid efforts, and has partnered with commercial suppliers and Europe Caribbean Line and its cargo ship, Beautranga to make sure supplies of generators, temporary shelter, infrastructure and rebuilding equipment, as well as containers full of private donations, reached the hardest hit islands as quickly as possible. 

Kestrel has staff and partners at sites across the Caribbean and founder and CEO Andy Thorne said he knew he needed to do something as soon as he saw scenes of the devastation across the Caribbean Islands.

Andy Thorne, CEO of Kestrel Liner Agencies, the shipping organisation he founded 30 years ago, said: “I have a personal and professional affinity with the Caribbean going back to the days I first founded our operations. My first thoughts were for my team, their families and their communities. Then it was about how we could mobilise ourselves and our kind network of suppliers and partners to get aid to the worst hit areas.  I have been humbled by the way our team on the ground in the Caribbean has mobilised itself to assist the communities it serves. The least we can do from the UK is to support those efforts.”  

Beautranga is currently making its way across the North Atlantic and is due to dock in St. Vincent on or around Aug. 24.  Given the level of storm damage at St. Vincent’s Kingstown port last month, the ship is preparing to dock at Campden Park.

As well as on St. Vincent, Kestrel also has long-established operations from sites in Guyana, Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and works with a host of other partner agents from further locations throughout the Caribbean. 

Kestrel’s operations manager in St. Vincent, Marlon Gibson, explained: 

“We know there is a vast array of vital aid, shelter and infrastructure, as well as personally addressed donations, arriving on the Beautranga from the UK. Once docked, we will be working very closely with the logistics and recovery experts from World Food Programme and the National Emergency Management Organisation to make sure the right aid equipment and specifically addressed donations reach their intended destinations.”