WE hope and trust that, generations from now, when stories are told about Hurricane Melissa, the extraordinary generosity from far and near will be much to the fore.

Make no mistake, the drive to provide assistance for people in western Jamaica — left with nothing and nowhere to turn — has been overwhelming.

It hasn’t only been about the delivery of supplies, be it food, building materials, medicine, and otherwise. We will always be grateful for those who have come — many from overseas, including the Diaspora — to share their skills in myriad areas as part of the recovery effort.

Consider the report in this newspaper’s Wednesday edition regarding the handover by the charity, Food For the Poor Jamaica (FFP) of seven 40-foot containers of relief supplies to hard-hit Ramble in Hanover, western Jamaica.

FFP’s director of partnerships and development Ms Susan Moore was reported as saying that, as important as the relief supplies were, her organisation was also preparing to provide health care. So, on Saturday, January 10, according to Ms Moore, doctors and nurses will be in Hanover to do sight screening, dental screening, and other examinations.

“Most importantly,” according to Ms Moore, “wellness” checks will also be done for people struggling with mental and emotional challenges.

Crucially, the FFP representative said the needs of children who experienced the catastrophic hurricane will be taken into account with a kiddies’ village. That, according to her, will allow children to play, which “helps in growth and development”. And, we might add, helps to lighten the traumatising load left by Melissa.

For, as Member of Parliament for St Elizabeth South Western Floyd Green said — also in Wednesday’s edition — it’s not easy for others to properly understand what victims and survivors of Hurricane Melissa experienced in late October.

Said Mr Green: “If you listen to some of the stories… especially [in] our coastal communities, literally, people had to swim for their lives…”

And consider those, both on the coasts and inland, fleeing their homes after roofs flew off before the storm’s monstrous winds, and dodging — sometimes in vain — deadly flying debris, including metal roofing.

It’s worth contemplating that nothing even remotely resembling the full story of the many who died during Melissa’s passing has yet been told.

It’s against that terrible backdrop that mental health specialists such as Dr Amanda Fraser are mobilising to provide what she is reported to have described as psychological first aid for those who lived through Melissa — old, young, and in-between.

We submit that, even at the worst of times, there’s usually reason for hope. So, Dr Fraser tells us that despite the long-standing tendency to decline mental health therapy because of age-old negative perceptions, Jamaicans in Melissa-ravaged areas are now welcoming mental health specialists.

Said she in part: “Seeing the gratitude… in a country where mental health has been stigmatised, and now it’s something that people are actively pursuing… Seeing the shift … it’s just remarkable.”

And further, “We have communities that we go… and [people] start to help us set up because they know that we’re here to help and to provide a service that is now essential…”

Truly, out of bad can come some good.