Guyana steps up to help Jamaican families rebuild after Hurricane Melissa

A home destroyed by Hurricane Melissa

Hurricane-hit communities in western Jamaica will receive additional relief supplies and reconstruction support as regional partners step up assistance following the destruction caused by Hurricane Melissa.

President Dr Irfaan Ali, who toured affected areas alongside Jamaican Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness and other officials, announced plans to mobilise manpower, materials and resources to help repair roofs for 200 damaged homes.

Dr Ali said the scale of devastation left by the Category 5 hurricane prompted him to back the Jamaican Government’s roofing initiative aimed at restoring housing stability for families. He also confirmed that another shipment of tarpaulins, water tanks, building materials and other supplies will be deployed from Guyana to support recovery efforts.

“This weekend we have basic shipment that would be coming in with food products, more tarpaulins, building materials, black tanks and so on. I’ve agreed with Prime Minister Holness and the rest of the region that we’re going to, in a very quick manner, mobilise resources– the manpower and material, whatever is needed to start with having 200 roofs completely redone,” he said.

The president commended the resilience of the Jamaican community and said Guyana’s support aims to ease the burden on families as the Christmas season approaches.

“We’re going to work with Prime Minister Holness and his team on ensuring as quickly as possible to ensure whether it’s roof replacement or the tarps– that we have everybody at least under some form of shelter before the Christmas holidays. We’re going to try as hard as possible to see how we can support that,” he said.

Ali said a full Guyana Defence Force team will be deployed as part of the broader CARICOM relief effort. He added that the initiative underscores Guyana’s ongoing solidarity with Jamaica and the wider Caribbean in times of natural disaster and humanitarian need.