NEARLY a year after Hurricane Melissa left much of Cove Primary School in Green Island, Hanover, unusable, students and teachers now have a fully rehabilitated school to call their own.

This follows the completion of a major restoration project supported by the American Friends of Jamaica (AFJ), the NCB Foundation, the Sandals Foundation, and other partners.

The rehabilitation, funded with $52 million from AFJ, was formally handed over to the school during a ceremony marking a significant milestone in the recovery of the institution which has 125 students, seven teachers, and a principal who had been navigating a severely compromised learning environment since the storm.

Cove Primary is one of several education recovery projects being supported by AFJ following Hurricane Melissa, with approximately $300 million committed to education-related recovery efforts across Jamaica.

Hurricane Melissa devastated Cove Primary, leaving approximately only one-third of the campus usable for lessons. Even in those spaces, a leaking roof created additional challenges while classes for other students had to be accommodated at a nearby church hall and in tents.

The completed rehabilitation has transformed the school’s physical environment and restored facilities needed to support teaching and learning.

Works included the installation of a new reinforced roof with hurricane straps, repairs to structural cracks and defects, new interior and exterior rendering, replacement and installation of doors and partitions, new floor tiles, electrical upgrades, security grilling, and a complete repainting of the school.

Celebrating their collective efforts to help rehabilitate the school were (from left) Treshauna McPherson, NCB Foundation representative; Wendy Hart, American Friends of Jamaica president; Patrice Campbell, Cove Primary principal; Karen Zacca, Sandals Foundation director of operations; and Anthonae Levy, deputy head girl. 

The project also delivered improvements to the school’s learning and support facilities, including a new, 21st century library equipped with books and educational toys, water tanks and pumps, computers, 65-inch smart boards, a printer, new furniture, and cooling fans.

A covered walkway was also constructed between the classrooms and bathrooms to ensure students remain protected during bad weather.

For the school community, the completed works represent more than the restoration of damaged buildings. They stand as testament to perseverance and partnership.

“When I walked in after reconstruction and saw all that had happened I said, ‘What the enemy meant for harm, God meant for good,’ ” reflected the school’s Principal Patrice Campbell.

“It takes off the stress. I don’t have to worry about where I will get resources; I can focus on planning the curriculum and ensuring our students learn in a comfortable environment. Thanks for making Cove Primary a stronger and more resilient school so that we can rise higher.”

The Cove Primary project is one tangible example of the scale of AFJ’s disaster response. Beyond education, AFJ’s wider recovery efforts have extended to areas including agricultural assistance and health-care interventions, reflecting the organisation’s broader commitment to supporting communities as they rebuild following the storm.

“In the days after Melissa it felt as though there was nothing good to be found, but it’s often in the hardest times that serendipity appears,” said Wendy Hart, president of AFJ.

“From the start, every partner shared one goal — to build back better and make resilience part of the design. Excellent PEP [Primary Exit Profile] results don’t happen by chance; they come from hard work. Chance and serendipity may have brought us all together but what we built here came from commitment, generosity, and hard work,” added Hart.

Sections of a roofless Cove Primary School after the passage of Hurricane Melissa last October.

The Sandals Foundation served as the implementing partner for the Cove Primary rehabilitation, providing project management as well as support for the school’s solar system and campus enhancements.

“We visited Cove Primary a few weeks after Hurricane Melissa and saw first-hand the damage that had taken place. We knew immediately that we would have to help,” said Karen Zacca, director of operations at the Sandals Foundation.

“This rebuild reflects true partnership and clearly shows what like-minded organisations can achieve together. The real heroes here today are the teachers, the students, the parents, and the contractors who turned up every single day regardless of the hardship they were facing,” added Zacca.

The NCB Foundation also partnered with AFJ and the Sandals Foundation on campus sustainability and recovery efforts, including a tree-planting initiative on the school grounds.

Additional support for the project came from Wegmans, Rosanna Gabrielle, Ryan Burke, XYZ Foundation, Hanover Charities, Sheldon Lynn, and the National Environment Trust.

With its classrooms, offices and supporting facilities restored and upgraded, Cove Primary now provides students and teachers with a safer, solar-powered, and fully equipped learning environment.

Its reopening marks another step in the school’s recovery and in the wider effort to help communities across Jamaica rebuild following Hurricane Melissa which ravaged sections of the island last October.