An international relief organization was poised to help with the COVID-19 response in Immokalee but has halted those plans.
Global Response Management is an international nonprofit organization that specializes in providing medical care and humanitarian relief for people affected by conflict and disaster.
Last month, the group announced it was be working in Immokalee to help with the COVID-19 response.
However, a statement provided by Global Response Management this week said that after five weeks of working in Immokalee, the organization “decided to focus ongoing efforts in communities with no safety net behind them, like the asylum camp in Matamoros, Mexico.”
Collier County Commissioner Bill McDaniel, whose district includes the town of Immokalee, said via email that representatives from Global Response Management told him they did not have the “funding nor time prescribed by their board to proceed” with the Immokalee initiative.
A representative of the organization confirmed McDaniel’s statement.
It is unclear at this time if Global Response Management will return to Immokalee in the future.