St James, Hanover residents get grants for Hurricane Beryl repairs
Published:Friday | September 6, 2024 | 12:12 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer -
WESTERN BUREAU:
Two months after Hurricane Beryl ravaged their homes, 162 residents of St James and Hanover were, yesterday, presented with cheques with a collective value of J$21 million by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security to help them in the rebuilding of their homes.
The funds, which the residents received during a handover ceremony at the Montego Bay Cultural Centre in St James, were provided through the social security ministry's $1 billion Rebuild Jamaica Programme, which has seen communities and homes across Jamaica being assessed over the past two weeks for damage caused by Beryl. The recipients from St James got a combined $13.2 million, and those from Hanover received $8.35 million.
Remi Rodney, a beneficiary from Mt Salem in St James, told The Gleaner that her cheque would help her to replace her damaged roof, which has not yet been repaired and which is now causing inconvenience to her when it rains.
“The impact that I got from Beryl, a section of my roof went off. Also, the confines of the kitchen, along with my fencing, which was damaged. It has affected me because as we speak, the roof is still there uncovered, and during the past few weeks, we have gotten some rain, so each time the rain falls, the water comes in and we have to set our pans,” said Rodney. “We have received a grant, which the ministry has given to us for the rebuilding process, whether we lost roofs or the entire structure of buildings, and I am very grateful for it.”
Angella Allen, who hails from Claremont in Hanover, was equally thankful for her financial grant to rebuild her home, which she said had to be torn down due to it being uninhabitable after Beryl.
“I feel extremely excited because my house was damaged, and I did not know what the next step was. I was battling for assistance, and the ministry came along and gave me assistance, and I am very grateful,” said Allen. “The top part of the house partially went off, and the house was leaning to one side, and if you should go inside, it would collapse, so I had to pull it down totally."
The 162 recipients from St James and Hanover represented only part of the approximately 1,200 beneficiaries from the two parishes who are earmarked to receive help through the Rebuild Jamaica Programme. Under the programme, residents whose homes received minor damage will get $50,000, those with severe damage will get $150,000, and those whose homes were totally destroyed will get $400,000.
Speaking at the handover ceremony, Labour Minister Pearnel Charles Jr told the beneficiaries that they must use the funds given to them in a responsible manner while also noting that some recipients would get additional funds from the United Nations World Food Programme in another two weeks.
“We have made sure that if you have total damage and you are getting the larger cheque, you get a portion now, you do the assessment, and then you get the other portion. But we do not have the time to go to everybody’s house and watch if you put a nail into a piece of board,” said Charles. “Rebuild Jamaica is ‘all a we’ business, and that means all of us are in this together. It is a national initiative to rebuild Jamaica as a family, as one community, as one Jamaica, and I expect that we are going to be responsible.”