Hurricane Melissa Recovery Fund

An Americares emergency response team is on the ground in Jamaica, offering assistance at damaged hospitals and health centers in the hardest hit areas, including Black River and Montego Bay.

The needs are immense: With missing or damaged roofs and significant water damage, hospitals need everything from beds and scrubs to medicine, medical equipment and supplies to replace what was lost in the hurricane. Facilities that escaped major damage have seen an increase in patients as survivors travel to seek care if their nearest health center closed.

At Black River Hospital, doctors and nurses are caring for their community while living out of their cars. Black River Hospital is the only hospital serving St. Elizabeth and the neighboring parishes where Hurricane Melissa made landfall. The hospital can no longer admit patients and is only able to focus on providing acute emergency care for storm survivors. Staff at another hospital are sheltering at the facility when possible, as their own homes are damaged or destroyed. Mental health needs among staff are significant, hospital leaders tell Americares responders.

The Americares team arrived Oct. 30 and immediately began assessing needs at hospitals and health centers and working with the government and regional authorities to coordinate assistance. “Staff said Americares was the first aid organization to offer help,” Fonteyn said. “We were among the first disaster relief organizations on the ground in Jamaica and we will stay as long as we are needed.”

Americares is preparing to deliver critically needed medicines, relief supplies and emergency funding to restore health services in affected communities.

Americares also has an emergency medical team on standby, ready to deploy to Jamaica to provide primary care and mental health support to survivors, if needed.

Americares staff in Haiti has been activated to provide medicines and medical supplies to partner health facilities in storm-damaged communities. Americares has offered assistance to partner organizations in the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic as well as Haiti and Jamaica. In Jamaica alone, Americares supports a network of more than 200 health facilities and social service organizations with donated medicine and medical supplies.

Americares is coordinating our response with the Jamaican government, the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency and the Pan American Health Organization. In Haiti and Jamaica, Americares has longstanding partnerships with organizations providing essential health services.

Convoy of Hope is on the ground in White Hall, Jamaica, one of many communities devastated by Hurricane Melissa.

The agency is distributing food, clean water, and other essential supplies to families in White Hall and across Jamaica, helping families take their first steps toward recovery.

As of November 7, Convoy of Hope has distributed over 30,000 meals in White Hall, Silent Hill, Christina, Montego Bay, and other communities. Containers are arriving at port, and once cleared, additional distributions will take place - with renewed focus on tarps, tents, and hygiene supplies (in addition to immediate food and water needs). 

Hear from survivors in the latest update here.

The experienced Global Empowerment Mission Caribbean team, based in Kingston, Jamaica, has been delivering critical humanitarian aid to southwestern Jamaica to the most affected areas, while GEM Headquarters is sending supplies into the area. GEM has already deployed ships of supplies to Haiti, which will continue its prolonged support to the country. Additionally, multiple cargo planes of aid & containers of supplies have been mobilized to land in Jamaica, offering both immediate and longer-term assistance. GEM has 2 large warehouses in Kingston which are prepositioned to support for the immediate & the long term recovery post-Melissa. GEM's local team has established critical partnerships with ODPEM, CDEMA, IOM, and other important organizations, which allow for response to be immediate, impactful, and targeted.

Phase 1: Immediate Response in Motion

Global Empowerment Mission (GEM), is fully mobilized in response to Hurricane Melissa:

• $10,000,000 in aid committed for Jamaica
• 5 Cargo planes deployed within 48 hours carrying approximately 150,000 pounds of relief goods
• 15 forty-foot containers in transit to Jamaica for immediate relief and long-term recovery
• 7 truckloads of aid distributed
• 2 containers in transit to Haiti as part of ongoing regional support

Since Hurricane Beryl struck Jamaica last year, our GEM Caribbean team has restored hope to hundreds of families, completing over 730 roof repairs and partnering with NCB foundation, ODPEM, CDEMA, and local organizations for fast, targeted relief. In 2019, GEM BStrong brought urgent aid to the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian—evacuating 850 people, repairing 120 homes, and delivering vital supplies by air and sea.