EVEN before survivors of the ferocious Category 5 Hurricane Melissa began to rebuild their lives, the JN Group says it was busy galvanising partners — Jamaicans overseas and friends of Jamaica — to be ready to support the rebuilding process.

As the hurricane bore down on the country, the group said it reactivated the ISupportJamaica Fund for Hurricane Melissa, appealing to Jamaicans overseas to donate cash and, in some cases, kind, to help families, institutions, vulnerable groups, and the communities they once called home to persevere against the odds.

From organising packed concerts to contributions of cans of food, hygiene and emergency items; from remitting funds via JN Money to donating via issuportjamaica.com with a credit card, a release from the group said Jamaicans in the Diaspora played their part in raising some $14 million to give families, friends, and communities back home the opportunity to thrive again.

“The response was overwhelming”, Paulette Simpson, executive, corporate affairs at the JN Group — a key mobiliser of the efforts — reflected. Domiciled in the United Kingdom, she created a hub for well-wishers at JN’s representative office in the UK to package containers of items for shipping to their “island in the sun”.

“So many came, sharing their own personal stories of friends and family they had in Jamaica, whilst others had visited Jamaica and wanted to help, and they all simply brought whatever they could,” she recalled.

Establishing partnerships with benevolent private companies and institutions overseas and in Jamaica, through its JN Foundation, the group has since then been diligently distributing the donated items and carefully investing the cash contributions into delivering medical aid and food to needy and remote areas, as well as supporting core groups.

“We earmarked 40 per cent of the cash donations to repair severely affected early childhood institutions, which have been important pillars in their communities,” outlined general manager of the JN Foundation, Claudine Allen. The schools included the Dudley Grant Demonstration Basic School in Catherine Hall, St James, which was the most severely affected of the institutions identified for assistance.

“Through our JN Circle chapters, affiliated organisations, and volunteers, we mobilised people, investing several man-hours and services into restoring the schools. And although there is still much more to do, the institutions can continue to edify and nurture our children who are at the most vulnerable stages of their lives,” explained Allen, adding that despite their importance to child development, early childhood institutions in Jamaica are mostly privately run and severely under-resourced.

Thirty per cent of the cash contributions have been used to address the needs of children’s homes and places of safety in devastated areas, homes for the elderly and at-risk groups, and the remaining 30 per cent is being used to support first responders.

“We’ve identified the Trelawny Infirmary, the Blessed Assurance Apostolate in St James, and a women’s shelter to receive assistance with rebuilding,” Allen said. “Thirty per cent of the donations will also assist police youth clubs and JN Circle chapters with supporting community outreach efforts.”

Noting that JN Circles nurture and strengthen connections at the community level, she added, “Our members nominated groups, elderly, and the most vulnerable families for help, providing evidence of loss, and helping them and us to direct the relief where it is most needed.”

Since Melissa’s landfall, the foundation has conducted 14 outreach missions in four parishes, beginning as early as a day after the hurricane’s passage. The release said on each mission it has brought medical services, in collaboration with St John Ambulance Jamaica, to treat injured survivors, conduct basic check-ups, and supply medication to those left without access. The foundation has also provided counselling services to the traumatised and distributed care packages while also providing a meaningful and dignified Christmas to many who could have no festivities.

“Through donations and partnerships, our missions have attended to the medical needs of more than 700 people across four parishes and delivered more than 2,300 relief packages,” outlined Allen. “And we continue on those missions because there are still many, particularly residents in remote communities, who remain without services and need the attention to help rebuild.”

“We are focused on helping to build back better,” she affirmed.

A member of the Jamaica Fire Brigade washes away mud and debris from a section of the Dudley Grant Demonstration Basic School in Catherine Hall, St James. Several homes, businesses, and facilities were inundated by flood water, in addition to being damaged by Category 5 storm winds wrought by Hurricane Melissa. The JN Foundation, through the ISupportJamaica Fund and partnerships, organised and funded a workday to clean up the early childhood institution. The school is one of the facilities receiving focus for assistance from the donated funds managed by the Foundation.

A resident of Albert Town, Trelawny, speaks with JN chaplain, Reverend Dr Kevin Page, during a medical mission and intervention in the rural community a few weeks after Hurricane Melissa’s passage.