Project Hope was one of the heroes of the Hurricane Melissa response

Western Bureau:

When Hurricane Melissa battered Jamaica last October, leaving widespread devastation and dislocation in its wake, one of the first international organisations to respond was the US-based humanitarian group Project HOPE, which played a vital role in helping residents of western Jamaica cope with the crisis.

Project HOPE launched a six-month emergency response that supported the country’s health system, particularly at the community level. The initiative provided emergency healthcare, mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services in the areas hardest hit by the storm.

According to Adib Fletcher, Project HOPE’s senior director for the Americas and humanitarian initiatives, critical assistance was delivered in St James, Westmoreland, St Elizabeth and Trelawny, the four parishes that bore the brunt of Melissa’s impact.

He said the organisation reached an estimated 139,870 people with essential health and humanitarian services, including mobile and fixed-site primary care, access to safe water and sanitation, and training for healthcare workers, in partnership with local health facilities.

“When Hurricane Melissa struck one year ago, it cut off entire communities and severely strained local clinics,” said Fletcher. “By embedding mental health services directly into our mobile medical clinics, partnering with local organisations, and support from the United States’ Department of State, we were able to reach the most needed communities.

“Our focus was not just immediate relief but leaving behind stronger local systems and trained health workers.”

According to data provided by Project HOPE, the organisation delivered 9,216 primary healthcare consultations during its six-month operation in Jamaica, by deploying mobile medical units, establishing a field hospital and providing surge support to 14 health centres across the western parishes.

Alongside direct clinical care, the team provided integrated mental health and psychosocial support to 8,669 people and supplied safe drinking water, hygiene kits and 50 large-capacity water-storage tanks, benefiting nearly 122,000 individuals.

To leave a lasting mark on Jamaica’s healthcare system, Project HOPE also trained 146 Jamaican healthcare workers and community responders in emergency clinical care and psychosocial support frameworks.

“A core tenet of Project HOPE’s response was to focus on addressing the most vulnerable individuals, including families with children, people living with disabilities, and older adults”, the organisation said in a release. “The response reached many women, who often shoulder overwhelming caregiving responsibilities during crises, and older adults, who are frequently left isolated in rural areas and cut off from essential medications for chronic conditions.”

Project HOPE said it tailored services to families with young children and people with disabilities who could not access fixed clinics, helping to ensure that those facing the greatest physical and social barriers to care were not left behind.

Although Project HOPE’s emergency mission in Jamaica has ended, its legacy is likely to endure through the many lives touched by its intervention.

“When we were cut off from the rest of Jamaica because we lost our main road to the floodwaters, Project Hope came to our rescue, they were more than good Samaritan to us,” a resident of Cambridge, St James, told The Gleaner. “While they are not here serving us at this time, we will never forget them, because they were here for us in our time of greatest needs.”

adrian.frater@gleanerjm.com