标签： Jamaica

During the official opening ceremony of the new Rural School Bus Operation Centre at the Jamaican Urban Transit Company (JUTC) Lyndhurst Road Depot on Wednesday, Jamaica’s Transport Minister Daryl Vaz delivered a firm reassurance to residents of remote inland communities: his administration’s pledge to add 100 brand-new school buses to the National Rural School Bus Programme (NRSBP) remains fully in effect.

Almost half a year has passed since Hurricane Melissa roared ashore on Jamaica’s western coast, packing maximum sustained winds of 185 miles per hour that left widespread destruction in its wake. Even after months of coordinated recovery work, more than 2,700 households and businesses across the hardest-hit regions remain cut off from the island’s electrical grid, according to official updates shared by Jamaican government leaders.

Minister of Energy, Transport and Telecommunications Daryl Vaz revealed the latest figures during Wednesday’s weekly post-cabinet press briefing held at Jamaica House. Of the remaining customers without power, 2,561 are located in Westmoreland parish, while another 203 reside in neighboring St Elizabeth. These outages persist despite intensive restoration efforts carried out by Jamaica’s primary power provider, Jamaica Public Service (JPS) Limited.

Vaz outlined the cascading set of challenges that have slowed progress for crews working to rebuild the damaged power network. Persistent torrential rainfall and widespread flooding across the two parishes have already forced 13 total days of work stoppages, putting the entire restoration timeline behind schedule. Even in areas where main power lines have been fully repaired, dozens of individual properties remain too damaged by the hurricane to safely connect to service, leaving their owners waiting in limbo.

Difficult geography and damaged infrastructure have compounded weather-related delays, Vaz explained. Most of the remaining outages are concentrated in hilly, remote regions where narrow, winding roads have been partially destroyed by the storm, and frequent landslides block access for heavy, specialized service vehicles. A large share of the unfinished work requires digging through hard, rocky terrain to install new power poles, a labor-intensive process that moves far slower in sparsely populated areas with limited access routes.

Despite these persistent setbacks, Vaz emphasized that overall recovery from the October 28 storm remains far along. Across Jamaica’s total customer base of nearly 700,000, 99.6 percent have now successfully regained electrical service, a milestone that reflects the scale of progress made in the past six months.

Between April 1 and April 13 alone, restoration teams made measurable gains: 258 additional customers were reconnected, and power infrastructure work has been substantially completed across 26 separate communities split between Westmoreland and St Elizabeth. Of these communities, 11 are located in Westmoreland and 15 in St Elizabeth, including high-impact, hard-to-reach settlements that have been offline since the storm hit.

This recent progress would not have been possible without rapid, targeted government action, Vaz stressed. Back in December, Jamaican lawmakers approved a $150 million U.S. loan specifically to fund hurricane power restoration, a move that came after early projections warned full recovery could drag on into late 2026 or even early 2027 – an outcome Vaz said the government deemed completely unacceptable. “This underscores that real commitment requires strong deliberate measures, not words alone,” he added.

Looking ahead, the government’s official target is to substantially complete all feasible power restoration work by April 30. The only exceptions will be customers facing extreme, unresolved barriers such as ongoing lack of safe access to their properties. To date, more than 1 billion Jamaican dollars have already been spent on reconnecting affected households.

Multiple government agencies are collaborating to speed up the final phase of work. The Jamaica Social Investment Fund is supporting local recovery efforts, while the Ministry of Labour and Social Security is advancing the Restoration of Owner or Occupant Family Shelters programme, which helps homeowners repair damaged properties to meet safety standards for power connection. Once these repairs are finished, JPS crews will be able to connect the remaining eligible customers as quickly as possible.

Vaz also released the full list of communities that have substantially completed restoration work between April 1 and April 13. In St Elizabeth, the communities are: Beersheba, Brighton, Brompton, Cedar Valley, Cheviot Hill, Claremont, Cotterwood, Cottage Lane, Sandy Ground, Crawford, Dalintober, Hopewell, Flint River, Lower Works, Mulgrave and Retirement. In Westmoreland, the completed communities are: Asthon, Amity, Bethel Town, Barneyside, Burnt Ground, Ferris, Haddo, Hertford, Mearnsville, Ramble, Seaford Town, and St Leonards.

KINGSTON, Jamaica — One of the Caribbean nation’s most prominent human rights advocates, Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ), has redirected proceeds from its popular annual fundraising event to deliver critical support to residential facilities caring for Jamaica’s state-placed children. On April 9, 2026, the organization formally presented a $250,000 cheque to the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA), marking a landmark contribution to post-hurricane recovery for youth care sites across the country.

The contribution draws a portion of its total from proceeds generated by the 2025 edition of JFJ’s signature Run for Rights 5K Walk/Run. Normally, funds raised from this community event go toward sustaining JFJ’s core advocacy and service work, which includes free legal assistance for women surviving gender-based violence and marginalized communities facing systematic rights violations. But when Hurricane Melissa swept across Jamaica in October, leaving a trail of destruction to public and private infrastructure, the organization made the deliberate choice to shift this allocation to emergency recovery.

The allocated funds will specifically target repairs and recovery programs for Child Care Facilities, the majority of which are privately operated residential sites that suffered damage ranging from minor structural harm to major destruction during the storm. Alongside the six-figure monetary donation, JFJ also collected thousands of pounds of non-perishable food, clothing, and essential hygiene products from Run for Rights participants and supporters, all of which have already been distributed to hard-hit parishes across the island in the wake of the hurricane.

Supporting children in state care has been a central pillar of JFJ’s work for more than two decades, dating back to the early 2000s. Beyond direct financial assistance, the organization has carried out large-scale independent research into living conditions at state-overseen residential facilities, conducted comprehensive reviews of national child welfare legislation, and pushed for sweeping policy changes—including reforms to national adoption laws designed to advance deinstitutionalization and place more children in stable family homes. This latest donation represents a tangible extension of that long-running commitment to protecting the rights of Jamaica’s most vulnerable young people.

“Normally, the proceeds from the Run for Rights are used to fund JFJ’s vital services, such as legal support to women affected by violence and marginalised groups whose rights are violated. However, following the passage of Hurricane Melissa, we decided to redirect the funds of the 2025 5K toward hurricane relief that will ultimately benefit children in residential care. We are proud that the generosity of our participants, supporters, and partners made that possible,” said Mickel Jackson, JFJ’s executive director.

Venessa Parkinson, JFJ’s programme coordinator, emphasized that child welfare is non-negotiable to the group’s core mission. “JFJ’s work centers on protecting the rights and dignity of the most vulnerable. Supporting children in State care is a key part of that mission, as they depend on systems meant to safeguard their wellbeing. This contribution reflects our continued commitment to ensuring every child has access to care, protection, and opportunity,” Parkinson explained.

JFJ closed by extending sincere gratitude to every participant, volunteer, donor, and corporate sponsor whose contributions made both the in-kind donation and the $250,000 contribution possible. Looking ahead, the organization has announced that the third annual staging of the Run for Rights 5K Walk/Run will take place on November 29, 2026, at Kingston’s iconic Hope Gardens.

In the wake of Hurricane Melissa’s devastating landfall in Jamaica, the JN Foundation has stepped forward with a roughly $1.4 million donation to fuel urgent reconstruction work at Mustard Seed Communities’ Blessed Assurance home, a residential facility for children and adults with physical and developmental disabilities located in St James.

The funding is drawn from the ISupportJamaica Fund, a disaster relief initiative JN Foundation activated immediately as Hurricane Melissa made landfall. Most contributions to the fund have come from members of the Jamaican diaspora living overseas and international allies of the island nation, demonstrating broad global solidarity for Jamaica’s post-disaster recovery.

Blessed Assurance remains in a fragile recovery phase weeks after the hurricane triggered catastrophic flooding that forced the evacuation of all residents. In some sections of the property, floodwaters rose all the way to roof level, forcing staff to move residents, many of whom are minors with complex care needs, to upper levels of the facility to wait out the storm. Every cottage on the property was submerged, with all bedding, furniture and critical care equipment destroyed. The only access road to the facility was completely washed away, leaving the site cut off from outside support for multiple days.

Reverend Father Garvin Augustine, executive director of Mustard Seed Communities, noted that Blessed Assurance was one of the organization’s most severely damaged properties. Even amid the destruction, he expressed gratitude for the collective support that has allowed the long rebuilding process to begin: “But through the generosity of our partners and the wider community, we have been able to begin the long and difficult process of rebuilding.”

The ISupportJamaica Fund has structured its allocation of donor funds to prioritize the most vulnerable groups across the island: 30% of all donations is earmarked for repairing disaster-ravaged facilities that serve marginalized communities, including care homes like Blessed Assurance. Another 40% is allocated to support early childhood education institutions impacted by the storm, with the final 30% going to first responder teams and local community organizations leading on-the-ground recovery efforts.

Omar Wright, lead for environment and community development at JN Foundation, explained why Mustard Seed Communities was selected as an early beneficiary: “Mustard Seed Communities makes for a worthy beneficiary, as the organisation is strong on mission credibility, operational competence and institutional trust. Over the years, we have collaborated to help to bring relief to its residents, most of whom are the most vulnerable in our society.”

Beyond the major financial contribution to the facility’s rebuilding, JN Foundation has partnered with St John Ambulance Jamaica to deliver urgently needed health care services to Blessed Assurance residents and staff. This medical outreach is part of a broader series of medical missions funded by Corus International, a global network of faith-based organizations. Since Hurricane Melissa passed through the island, JN Foundation has already led 17 separate medical missions to hard-hit rural and underserved communities across Jamaica.

Wright explained that the outreach was launched to fill critical gaps in health access that emerged in the hurricane’s aftermath. Many vulnerable groups, including elderly residents and people living with disabilities, had not been able to access emergency care or disaster relief services in the weeks following the storm. “At Blessed Assurance, the mission was especially impactful because of the complex medical needs of the children and the caregivers,” he added.

The program specifically targets hard-to-reach and underserved communities, with a focus on western Jamaica parishes that bore the brunt of Hurricane Melissa’s damage. Organizers project the series of missions will serve up to 1,200 local residents by the time the program concludes. Medical teams assembled for the missions include licensed doctors, nurses, emergency medical technicians, and all necessary support supplied by St John Ambulance, including on-site ambulances. Services provided include basic preventive screenings for common conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes, pre-hospital health assessments, prescription refills, and limited on-site dispensing of necessary medications.

Staff at the Blessed Assurance facility have welcomed the mission, noting that stress and anxiety have remained widespread in the wake of the disaster, but accessing routine care has often been delayed or impossible amid the recovery chaos. Alecia Bowyer, an administrative assistant at the facility, praised the care her team received: “I received excellent service; the medical team was helpful and attentive. They have reminded me of the importance of taking better care of my health and how I can improve my diet.”

Karen Miller Bogle, a family nurse practitioner with the St John Ambulance team, reflected on the broader meaning of the collaborative relief effort. “In everything, give thanks. Sometimes you may feel that your situation is very difficult, but when you participate in these outreaches, you realise that others are facing far greater challenges and are still doing their best to survive. It underscores how important it is for people to come together and work as a team, as this ultimately benefits the entire community,” she said.