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Dear Friends, Supporters & Kind-Hearts,
In the quiet town of Lacovia, St. Elizabeth, Jamaica, roofs are gone, homes are flooded, and families are clinging to hope after Hurricane Melissa’s catastrophic landfall.
My name is Terrence, and I’m reaching out on behalf of my relatives and the resilient families of Lacovia — a community now facing heartbreak and upheaval.
This community has thrived on hope, hard work, and togetherness. But now, many of the homes that sheltered children’s dreams, family meals, and weekend gatherings have been ripped apart — roofs torn off, walls collapsed, belongings lost, and sorrow deeply felt. My relatives are personally impacted.
My late grandmother’s home, which protected several generations, had its roof blown off and everything inside drenched and damaged — a painful loss for our family and so many others.
What Happened
- Hurricane Melissa, a Category 5 storm with 185 MPH winds, brought catastrophic floods and destruction across Jamaica.
- In Lacovia, homes were destroyed, roads cut off, power and communication lines severed, and drinking water scarce — leaving families isolated and vulnerable.
- Livelihoods vanished overnight — crops, livestock, and small businesses gone — leaving families in dire need of help.
Why Your Help Matters
Everyone deserves a safe place to sleep, a warm meal to share, and a fresh start when disaster strikes. While Jamaica’s catastrophe responders work to mobilize and clear roads to deliver aid to towns and cities across the island, people, particularly in smaller, rural communities like Lacovia, are left waiting longer for relief, food, means to rebuild, and attention.
With your generous support, we aim to offer temporary relief and restore hope in three concrete ways:
- Essential Living Supplies – food (non-perishable foods, water, baby formula, etc.), cots and beds, personal hygiene items to restore dignity and stability to daily life.
- Emergency Shelter & Repairs – Provide materials (lumber, roofing, tarps) and labor to enable families to transition out of temporary shelters and back into their homes.
- Emergency Equipment – Flashlights, propane/gas for cooking, and small, portable generators to provide temporary, reliable power source to maintain life-saving services, enable communication, and keep refrigerators and freezers running to prevent food and perishable medications from spoiling.
$50 can feed a small family for several days, and $250 can help patch or re-roof a home. Every donation — whether big or small — will help towards survival, healing, and hope.
How Your Gift Works
• Locally Focused — All work will be done in-community, employing local labor, purchasing from local suppliers and relying on those who know the community best.
• Directly Impactful — Your donation doesn’t just buy a meal, a cot, or tarp a roof; it is lifesaving, and restores normalcy, and the hope that brighter days are ahead, however long it may take.
Please Join Us
Your contribution will help the spirit of a community rise again.
From the bottom of my heart and my family’s — thank you for standing with us! Together, we can help the people of Lacovia and show them that kindness, solidarity, and collective action is stronger than the aftermath of any storm.
With gratitude,
Terrence Smith & the Smith family
Organizer and beneficiary
Alethea Smith
Beneficiary