JAMAICANS Abroad Helping Jamaicans at Home (JAHJAH) Foundation, after donating a vast amount of post-Hurricane Beryl relief supplies to schools and other entities such as Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB), has turned its focus now on rebuilding five houses in St Elizabeth for people who had theirs destroyed during the natural disaster in July.

The foundation, through collaboration with Lowe’s store in Brooklyn, New York, received plywood, zinc, and other supplies that will go towards rebuilding these five houses for the indigent. It also secured partnership with community development specialist Jermaine Porter and the Rotary Club to identify the people who have the greatest need and whose situation is urgent.

Porter told Jamaica Observer of Monday that some of the people receiving the assistance are currently living in shelters and homes for the elderly.

“These houses are for senior citizens, people over the age of 60. They will get a one-bedroom house with bathroom facilities. We just want to make sure they are as comfortable as possible. A few of them received food packages but they would need further help in getting back a house — that is the kind of help that JAHJAH Foundation is rendering.

“Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of Jamaicans have been suffering and Hurricane Beryl pushed some of these families further into poverty, and so the contribution of JAHJAH Foundation was timely. I am very pleased.

“Dr Trevor Dixon, founder of JAHJAH Foundation, visited the island after Hurricane Beryl and we toured the communities where we identified some needy residents in Hodgesland, Hilltop in the Junction area, Vineyard, and Black River — all in St Elizabeth.

“Some of them are living in homes and shelters and so, after assessment with the Rotary Club of Savanna-la-Mar, they saw where the need was genuine and decided to render assistance. The building material is here; we did the measurements for these houses and they will be built out of plyboard — basically from scratch,” Porter said.

Last week the foundation donated hurricane relief supplies to institutions and individuals in the western end of the island, and founder Dr Dixon was adamant that without his donors and volunteers in the US, none of it would be possible. For their input, Dixon extended a big thank you to them in a recent interview with Jamaica Observer.

He said after Hurricane Beryl battered St Elizabeth and other parts of Jamaica in July, the need to render assistance dawned on kind-hearted people in the Diaspora who told him that something other than donating money must be done to help the people recover from the effects of Beryl.

Dr Dixon, who is director of the Emergency Ultrasound Department at Jacobi Hospital in Bronx New York, told the Observer that with this motivation he embarked on packing a 40-foot container with food, construction materials, and other essential items to have them shipped to Jamaica.

“We had folks who wanted to do something more at the grass root [level]. It is the first time we are doing a hurricane relief effort in Jamaica — we usually focus on health care and medical care. After speaking to some colleagues in Jamaica, in particular Dr Steve Foo at the Black River Hospital, he said the people need emotional support, and some were very poor and wouldn’t be able to get their roofs on for months without a little help.

“We decided to go to some of our sponsors. The first entity we went to was Trans Caribbean Express Shippers in East Orange, New Jersey, and I spoke to the chairman, Marcus Rutty, and he said whatever we were doing, he would come on board. At that point we still needed funds so we knocked on doors and, thankfully, folks — most notably the original Dumpling Shop in Bronx on Baychester Avenue — answered our call.

“Sometimes it is really about the people behind the scenes helping out JAHJAH Foundation why we are where we are today. We also tapped in on the Union of Jamaican Alumni Association, Jamaican Nurses Group of New York and New Jersey. First I said I would send like a 20-foot container and send some barrels, but then I said a 40-foot container is something the Diaspora could help me to pack,” Dr Dixon told the
Observer, expressing thanks also to the Lowe’s department store in Brooklyn for the role they played.

He said that Lowe’s granted the foundation huge discounts on plywood, zinc, and a lot of other relief supplies — and for that he expressed gratitude.

He thanked all the volunteers who packed the barrels as well as the Jamaica Customs Agency (JCA) for facilitating the smooth clearing of the container when it arrived.

“I want to give a special shout out to Miss Janice Walker and Miss Ladonna Manning for making sure that this process was as seamless as possible,” Dixon said.

Manning, who is director of public relations and customer services at JCA, told the
Observer that it was indeed a pleasure to be able assist the process.

“As a team, we work diligently together and go beyond the call of duty; it is a pleasure for us. One of our taglines is: ‘Jamaica Customs, keeping our customers in focus’, and we really try to keep our customers in focus. At the end of the day we love serving customers — whether it is the person in the nook and cranny of Jamaica or whether it is somebody clearing a barrel or a big shipment. We see every customer as being critically important to us. I am grateful that we, too, were part of the facilitation process,” Manning said.