DEVASTATION MEETS CARE: ST ELIZABETH VICTIMS BENEFIT FROM RG CARES

The RG CARES’s visit to St Elizabeth on Saturday, November 8, was filled with mixed emotions for team members.

Almost 40 volunteers from RJRGLEANER, the Anglican Diocese of Jamaica, the United Church, and members of the Securipro and Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) teams were shocked to personally witness the level of devastation. We had all seen photographs and videos, but to witness, in the hundreds, house after house without roofs, windows and doors; to see furniture broken into small pieces; to see clumps of bamboo trees uprooted and flung metres away from where they were firmly grounded, shocked us all.

However, the needs of the people gathered at a shelter at the Lacovia Primary School quickly refocused us on the human challenge that exists. Men, women and children quietly sat, waiting for any help they could get. For some, it was obviously uncomfortable. They would rather not be there, but as they formed lines and collected care packages, as they charged their mobile devices, as they connected to the Internet and made calls and sent messages, we realised that they were appreciative but also worried, as the road ahead for them is uncertain and will be long.

Shelter manager, Sheree McLeod, guided us as we assisted more than 150 residents at this location, next door to the destroyed St Thomas Anglican Church which was left with none of its roof and less than 10 per cent of its walls after Hurricane Melissa hit. The shelter was now down to one consistent occupant, but the residents who sought refuge there come back daily for any supplies they can get.

As our team moved into the communities of Rice Piece and Tombstone near Lacovia, it was welcome relief for many who cannot make it out to the main road where traffic is heavy, and some people get repeated help. In some of these areas where the land is flat and the houses were mainly wooden structures; the devastation was tremendous.

Some 15 miles away when half of our team stopped at the Cambridge United Church, which also houses a shelter in its hall, the needs and the challenges were just as great. The Rev Oliver Daley gathered us all in a devotional session where he struck a chord of hope, declaring that “God has spared our lives for a reason” and that once we have life, we must not lose hope. He charged those of us there to help a brother or a sister to reach out and to do so, because despite our circumstances, we have life and we must try to build hope.

We were inspired as well by many elderly people who lost the home they built through their lives’ work, only to be homeless and resourceless after the hurricane. Their gratitude made team members want to do more. We drove as far as the power-line-strewn, branch-covered roadway allowed, reaching Brompton Lane, where team members continued on foot, walking into lanes and up hillsides to deliver packages to residents too infirm to make the journey down. “Listen, this is too much,” said Simone Clarke-Cooper, one of the volunteers, not referring to the many trips she was making into alleyways to deliver packages, but to the level of destruction she was seeing. “This is unreal,” she concluded.

However, for Ms Velma, a retiree we spoke to at a shop, where a car blared its sound system, filling the air with something other than pounding hammers and creaking zinc sheets whenever a gust of wind came, gratitude was the only response. “I thank God for life … . I prayed and prayed during the storm, but it was so vex and so angry, that I never think I would live … and now mi no have it, but mi ca’an give up … . I am 71, whey mi a go do? But mi have to start somewhere…,” she said, expressing thanks for the relief package, which seemed so inadequate when you consider the scale of her loss. The house nearby that she pointed out was roofless, with furniture pieces gathered around a sofa and two mattresses. That’s where she will begin, again.

A heartbreaking scene greeted us in Middle Quarters, where the shops and stalls of the peppered shrimp vendors were no more, but there were some of them with their basins and their plastic bags of shrimp, trying to get back to a normal commercial routine. Yet, it was two shirtless boys on a bank between the road and the black stagnant water settled in the exposed bushes that caught our attention. A JCF officer with us shouted, “Stop, stop, stop!” and we did. The boys had their arms open wide and were crying out, “Water, water!”

We gave them what we had in our vehicle, knowing that the searing heat we experienced on our visit was their constant condition and they would quickly thirst again.

Some RG CARES team members also ventured into Carisbrook, another community which was some 12 miles from Lacovia. The trek through Maggotty into Carisbrook showed more of the same, downed electrical poles and lines, beheaded trees and massive landslides, that left volunteer and hometowner Daniel Thompson shocked by what he had seen. The appreciation of the residents who quickly gathered around our vehicles to collect additional supplies made him feel better and proud to be a part of the effort of RG CARES, in the scorched and damaged hills of that district. Traffic getting in and out of Santa Cruz was punishing, especially on our news team that recorded residents’ experiences for last Sunday’s ‘That’s a Rap’ programme for airing on Radio Jamaica 94FM. It took them almost three hours to cover the usual 15-minute drive from Lacovia, through Santa Cruz.

Back at the RJRGLEANER headquarters, the team’s surprise and concern were lifted by our ability to have been able to make a difference through more than 450 care packages delivered by us and our partners, the Anglican Diocese in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands and the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.

We are grateful to all our partners – Mother’s House Foundation, American Jewelry Company, Lee’s Food Fair, Securipro, Nation’s Choice, Phase Three Productions, and GDI Distributors – as we continue to prepare for future missions out west.

HOW TO HELP

CANNED FOODS, HYGIENE ITEMS, AND WATER MAY BE DROPPED OFF AT:

Anglican Diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands Sites:

• Church of the Good Shepherd, 193 Constant Spring Rd

o Days/Hours: Mon–Wed, 7:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

• St. Luke’s Church, 89 Slipe Rd, Cross Roads

o Days/Hours: Mon–Wed, 7:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m.; Thurs, 7:30 a.m.–12 noon

United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands sites:

9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m., Mondays through Saturdays.

• Webster Memorial Church Hall

o 53 Half-Way-Tree Road

• Hope United Church

o 221 Old Hope Road

• Meadowbrook United Church

o 2 Flemington Drive

• Portmore United Church

o Bridgeport Road

CASH DONATIONS SHOULD BE TRANSFERRED TO:

Bank of Nova Scotia – New Kingston Branch

Transit #: 50575

JMD Acct #: 10822945 or USD Acct #: 10822946

Account Name: Television Jamaica Change a Life Jamaica

Account Type: Chequing Account