Handwritten hope

The adage ‘A child shall lead them’ took on powerful meaning in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa when the Maxfield Park Children’s Home in St Andrew – an institution more accustomed to receiving donations – handed over care packages to the Crisis Support Charity.

The home, which shelters children deemed in need of care and protection, mobilised staff and residents to support those hardest hit by the Category 5 system.

With the country still reeling from the storm that devastated several parishes on October 28, the children and staff assembled boxes filled with toiletries, clothing, toys, colouring books, diapers, and handwritten messages of encouragement. These items will be delivered to children in St Elizabeth, Westmoreland, and St James, the areas most severely affected.

Co-founder of the charity, Stephen Josephs, admitted to The Gleaner that when he initially received the call about their intention, he thought it was a hoax.

“When my brother, Luke Josephs, told me that Maxfield Park Children’s Home wanted to give away some stuff for the children who were a part of the devastation, I actually called back the manager to see if it was in fact true. I had to put my schedule down to go and witness this personally because although they are the ones that are usually on the receiving end, they do have their own challenges,” Josephs said.

Manager of the home Renae Tuckett-Palmer described the initiative as a gift of love, explaining that the children were moved by news of the destruction.

“The staff helped, but the creative touch of decorating the boxes is mainly the children. Some of the kids were concerned about what happened and reached out, so the facility put things in place so they could be a part of giving back,” she said.

“From babies, to kids, to adults, seeing things from a child’s perspective, they will put a colouring book, a crayon. We, as adults, we think food items, we think toilet paper, but the kids will just put their own little touch on it, seeing it from a child’s perspective. They wrote messages like ‘We care’ [and] ‘We see you’ on the packages.”

Josephs said those handwritten notes were among the most touching parts of the donation.

“One of the messages on the packages said, ‘We will rebuild Jamaica’, and they sent so many inspirational written notes on these packages to the children. I am overjoyed to see that these children, within their own capacity of challenges, decided, along with the teachers and the manager, to give back to this cause.

“You know we have many rivers to cross, and certainly with donations like these, it will help our brothers and sisters to help to cross that river. I have never seen anything like this; it is to be talked about. And I know these children who are going to get this will be grateful,” Josephs said.

Children want to help

Tuckett-Palmer said the home has participated in outreach efforts before, but this project was on a much larger scale. She noted that the children were eager not only to donate items but to physically visit the affected communities.

“To be very honest with you, most of them wanted to go there and help; they wanted to be there. I had to tell them it’s not safe right now, so later on, hopefully, they can get to go and help and be a part of being on the ground. But right now, this is the best way they can help and keep them safe as well,” she said.

“I am really proud of them. It’s a different feeling to be giving back, especially as we approach Christmas. Everyone is thinking what is coming to them ... . So I am really proud of the residents and staff about how they came out, and you see how big the boxes are,” the home manger said.

Crisis Support Charity, formed by the same team that established the Burn Foundation of Jamaica in 2021, focuses heavily on emergency and disaster response. Since its inception, it has renovated a counselling room at Victoria Jubilee Hospital to provide mental- health support to parents, and it supplies nutrition to teenage mothers during and after pregnancy. The group recently assisted the Jamaica Constabulary Force, the Jamaica Defence Force, and the Jamaica Fire Brigade in rescuing a disabled man trapped in waist-high water after his home collapsed.

Josephs told The Gleaner that the Charity – which mobilises four ambulances, 10 doctors, 10 nurses, and 15 volunteers – will deliver the donated care packages to the affected parishes between Sunday and next week.

karen.madden@gleanerjm.com