Jonique Gaynor, STAR reporter

Even though it is getting close to a year since the passage of Hurricane Dean, there are several affected persons whose lives are still in the same condition they were immediately after the disaster.

Though the government did announce that they would issue relief cheques to those who suffered damage, this process is not being handled efficiently and there are persons in dire need, who have not seen a red cent.

What makes this worse is that while there are people with a genuine need for assistance who have not been helped, there are others who have received cheques, but did not even lose a tree limb.

It is unfortunate that the system has been duped by these unscrupulous individuals who use the money intended for others in need, to buy shoes and clothes. It is hard to understand though how the authorities allow this to happen when there are several communities across the island where the need is very obvious.

THE STAR recently did a story on a section of an east Kingston community called Shooters Hill, and anyone with the least amount of sight, could see and understand the plight of these residents. Many of them have tried to patch what they can, but they can only do so much. None of the residents have received help. They have been to all the various offices, trekked back and forth to the post office, only to hear that their names are not on the list and there is no cheque for them.

On the other hand, there are people, whose houses are very much intact, that have already received and disposed of their 'relief' cheques. It is very obvious that much more research and 'fieldwork' need to be done when it comes to determining who should benefit from these programmes as they are clearly being mis-used by some people.

It is unfair for a woman with several children living in a one room to miss out on the opportunity to restore her home because a greedy, selfish person living in very good conditions decided that he or she wants some extra cash.