Over the past two weeks, Hurricane Melissa has ravaged the entirety of Western Jamaica, leaving many areas inaccessible, causing an island-wide blackout, severing communication channels such as cell service and Wi-Fi, destroying thousands of homes, displacing families, and shattering what little sense of security Jamaicans had to begin with.

My name is Ed Van Keuren and I am a professor of physics at Georgetown University in Washington DC. One of my graduate students, Orelle Bulgin, and his family have been significantly impacted by this event. His home was destroyed and his family evacuated, and so we are organizing this GoFundMe page to help. The funds that are donated will be directly routed to an accountant that will route this to his family and surrounding neighbors in order to help them buy food/water , materials to rebuild the house that has been lost due to the disaster and the labor cost that comes with it. The accountant will make recording or expenses and ensure the funds is used how it should be. Below is a statement from Orelle. Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

Best,

Ed Van Keuren

PhD Advisor

"My own family, the community I grew up in, and neighboring areas where my loved ones live have been hit hard — homes destroyed (including my home), roofs collapsed or torn off, roads demolished, and countless people struggling to find food, clean water, and shelter.

The Government of Jamaica has been working tirelessly to respond to the island-wide devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa. I fully trust and support these ongoing national recovery efforts — but the truth is, the need is overwhelming, and time is of the essence for those who need immediate help.

If you can, please donate or share this message. Even the smallest contribution can make a difference for my family and the communities around them. I want to sincerely thank everyone who has reached out to me or to any other Jamaican during this time. Together, we can turn compassion into action and help Jamaica rise again. If we fall seven times, we will stand up eight.

Thank you for reading, sharing, and donating — and please keep our island and our people in your prayers."