For Rockland’s Haitians, getting aid to hurricane-ravaged Jamaica is personal
Konbit Neg Lakay has delivered food and clothes safely and efficiently while setting up medical clinics over the past 30 years in response to disasters in Haiti.
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A Haitian community organization in Rockland County is chipping in to help people in Jamaica who are still suffering after Hurricane Melissa reshaped the western side of the country.
Staff and volunteers at Konbit Neg Lakay in Spring Valley know the logistics of delivering aid to the Caribbean.
Konbit has delivered food and clothes safely and efficiently while setting up medical clinics over the past 30 years in response to disasters in Haiti.
Executive Director Renold Julien said that is one reason why they spent all day Tuesday collecting food, supplies and money for people in Jamaica still hurting after last month's hurricane.
"It's going to be so easy for us to help Jamaica because we already have a system in place," he said.
Another reason is that Haiti and Jamaica are forever connected, historically and socially. It was a Jamaican — Dutty Boukman — who helped start a slave uprising in Haiti in the late 1700s, which eventually led to the Haitian revolution.
"Boukman was Jamaican," Julien said. "…We have a special place in our hearts for Jamaica."
For assurance, Konbit is sending one of its volunteers to Jamaica to personally follow the aid package to its intended recipients.
"We're doing it for us to see, firsthand, the devastation…and make sure that what people trust us [with] goes exactly where it's supposed to go," said Julien.
The aid is needed immediately. A month after Melissa, several thousand are still living in shelters and do not have easy access to proper food. Once there is enough food, groups like Konbit might have to take more trips to Jamaica to help rebuild their homes.
Hurricane Melissa destroyed at least 24,000 homes in Jamaica.
