VENICE Townsend and eight members of her family who have been without a roof over their heads since Hurricane Dean ripped the zinc from their two-bedroom house more than a month ago, will be singing the praises of Father HoLung and his team of missionaries for years to come.

The Missionaries of the Poor, sworn to fulfil physical and spiritual need wherever it exists in their communities, have taken on the task of redoing the roof for Townsend, her husband, baby daughter, stepson, brother, sister and the sister’s three children who live in Rum Lane, downtown Kingston.

Before their intervention, Townsend had procured seven pieces of two-by-four beams and eight pieces of lath. However, that was nowhere near enough material to repair the roof of the two bedrooms, living room and kitchen, and it probably would have taken her several months to amass all the board and sheets of zinc necessary to do the job.

Still, the brothers – as the missionaries are called – are only providing raw zinc which means that Townsend’s roof will act as a thermal conductor. Be that as it may, the woman says she is grateful beyond words for the assistance of the brothers, who are undertaking the wood sawing, nail hammering, beam and zinc laying themselves, and without cost a to the family.

“Mi all right with that. Mi wi live wid dat (as opposed) to the water ah come in.”

She added that the only source of help she has been able to access since the category four hurricane left her family exposed to the elements on August 19 has been from the missionaries, who have been working in Jamaica since 1981.

“From di storm wi nuh see nuh (member of parliament) or no politician. Ah just dem people yah wi see. Dem ah fix di roof and dem gi wi food!” she said.

Had it not been for them, she added, “Wi would affi wait till mi buy di board dem lickle lickle an’ fix it wiself (because) wi neva have nuh weh else fi guh. We stay right here during and since the storm. When rain falling, we cover up wid di tarpaulin dem wi did buy before.”

She bought the thick plastic-like material before the hurricane, she said, because she did expect some amount of damage. She just didn’t bargain for the entire roof lifting.

“All the roof come off and water soak inna di furniture and the clothes,” she said, pointing to stacks of untidily packed drawers, clothes spilling over and two dishevelled beds with blue tarpaulin sheets nearby.

“We stayed right here. When rain fall we cover up under the tarpaulin dem. Mi did buy dem before di storm because I knew we would get damage, I just never expected it to be so bad,” said Townsend, adding that the situation also meant they had to do the laundry often.

“Every minute wi haffi wash cause di clothes dem get wet when rain fall and dem get mouldy.”

Townsend’s house is one of five which the missionaries have so far repaired on Rum Lane alone. They have done several others on Smith Lane and on Fleet, Charles, James and Wildman streets in the Southside/Spoilers areas of downtown Kingston.

“We work in both the People’s National Party area and the Jamaica Labour Party area,” said founder of the missionary group, Father Richard HoLung, referring to the political divide in the area. “We’re trying to do an equal number in each section so we can build brotherhood,” he said.

Father HoLung said that although two of the brothers were gunned down in the area two years ago, the missionaries, bound by their Biblical beliefs and religious vows, were committed to helping the poor in those areas because “the only thing that can overcome evil is good”. “We want to show the people our great love for them,” said he.

The priest said that the group of brothers had re-roofed about 100 houses in both areas so far and were planning to do up to 500.