General Shaw Clifton, the international head of the Salvation Army, is scheduled to arrive here today for the first leg of a two-country Caribbean visit.

It is the first trip to the region for Clifton, an Irishman, who has led the relief agency for the past three years. He and his wife, Helen, who is also an officer in the Salvation Army, are scheduled to leave Jamaica tomorrow for Haiti.

"This is a really significant trip not only because it's his first to the Caribbean, but he will also be meeting with members from across the Caribbean," Lieutenant Colonel Lindsay Rowe, the Salvation Army's second-in-command for the Caribbean, told The Gleaner.

Heading to haiti

Clifton, 64, is scheduled to hold a worship service and meet with regional members tomorrow at the Army's Bramwell Booth Hall in downtown Kingston.

Larger conferences are planned for impoverished Haiti, where Clifton and his delegation will stay for five days.

"We have a very strong presence in Haiti. General Clifton will hold what we call a congress of all Salvationists and look at the situation there," Rowe said.

The Salvation Army operates in 16 Caribbean countries. It has dedicated much of its resources to Haiti, where years of political conflict have resulted in wide-scale poverty among the majority black population.

There are 46 Salvation Army-run schools in Haiti with more than 10,000 students. The organisation also oversees hospitals, clinics and churches which help to monitor its relief programmes. Founded in 1865, the Salvation Army has been in Jamaica since 1887. Its eastern and western divisions manage its churches, social services and schools.