I'm Jacqueline Pryce-Harvey and I retired as a New York City Principal to Montego Bay, Jamaica. I have 2 rental properties and discovered Pelican Bar as a unique and fun day trip for my guests, friends, and family. Last year, 2024, Hurricane Beryl devastated families and houses on Parottee Bay, St. Elizabeth, Jamaica. This week, Hurricane Melissa hit the same area and the same families. Parottee Bay is a strip of land between the Caribbean Sea and Parottee Pond. Residents make a living fishing and taking guests to Pelican Bar. Sherine owns a small rustic boat and hires Natty as her boatman, and we developed a deep friendship over the years. Both families have lived in this community for decades. Sherine reached out to me last year for help to rebuild Natty's wood house that fared badly in the storm. She coordinated the funding, supervised the work, sent pictures of the work, collected the funds, and paid it over to Natty.

This year, I convinced them neither one of them would survive a direct hit from a category 5 hurricane, and they sought shelter when Hurricane Melissa made landfall in their community. Today, Sherine wrote me this distressing text: "..our home is just sand and debris from the ocean, we lost everything: clothes, furniture, appliances, everything.."

There are many cases of need in Jamaica right now. My goal is to start with the people I know, care about, and admire for their hard work and integrity. They are prepared to do 80% of the rebuilding themselves, as Natty did last year. Materials such as steel rods, building blocks, cement, and eventually windows will be needed.

But their immediate need is funding to rent a house for their young children and aging parents until they start to recover their income streams in an area and country devastated by one of the strongest hurricanes on record in Jamaica.

All funds donated will be used to pay for housing while they rebuild, and to buy materials to rebuild their houses.

Once again, I'm asking for your support for my hardworking, humble, and honorable friends who are caught in a cycle of violent hurricanes disrupting their lives.