Hello everyone, my name is Sherika, and I’m currently a university student living in Ontario Canada. My mom has spent the past 4-5 years slowly building her own single-bedroom home. The house wasn’t built to withstand a Category 5 hurricane; it was meant to provide her with immediate shelter while she continued working toward completing it.

For many Jamaicans, this is the reality — people start small, building a single room or partial structure to meet their immediate needs, and then add on as funds become available. This process often takes years to complete. And often becomes a family project as others will add on their own rooms or fund the building of the house. Initially, Hurricane Melissa was projected to make landfall on the southeast coast of Jamaica. But over the past 2 days, the storm shifted toward the west coast and is directly passing through our neighborhood, Amity Westmoreland. A area that is already very prone to flooding from light rainfall.

This morning, October 29, my sister shared several videos in which the only thing left out of the house is the walls of the bathroom the entirety of the house has been destroyed. I am hopeful for her safety and am anxiously waiting to hear from her. It’s very vulnerable for me to make this request, but the truth is I’m not in a position to do much right now. As a full-time student, I haven’t yet had the chance to enter the professional workforce, and I can’t financially support her recovery alone. Any donation will go directly toward helping her find a place to live then repair and rebuild what’s left of her house. If in the case funds exceed what we need the remainder will go towards helping others within her community. In addition I will be working with my community and colleagues in Canada to start a clothing and food drive for the residents of Amity and Petters field Westmoreland. 

The google drive attached includes videos of the community, and three screenshots of my mom’s house https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1a1mZVywTtg7ujW5X-vrkDM70jONH3qWL