In the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa, Lorna Owens—a Jamaican living in Florida—explains her work raising funds for two organizations providing humanitarian aid to those living without homes, food, water, or medicine.
By Kielce Gussie
A friendship and love of food sparked an initiative to supply funds and aid to the people of Jamaica still suffering from the devastating effects of Hurricane Melissa.
Born and raised in Old England, Jamaica, Lorna Owens knew she wanted to help her fellow countrymen in whatever way she could, after the strongest recorded hurricane ever to make landfall on the island nation hit on October 28.
Prayer and action
“Once I heard that this hurricane was heading towards Jamaica, first of all, I said a lot of prayers,” Owens told Vatican News. “But we knew it was going to be bad. My mind said, ‘I will have to be involved.’”
A man searches through the destruction left by Hurricane Melissa in Black River, Jamaica (ANSA)
She explained she had the conviction to do something for her country—the country that had given her everything. Once the storm pulled away from the island, Owens said the devastation and damage was worse than anyone imagined. Taking her prayers and putting them into action, Owens, together with her friend, Chef Hari Pulapaka, brainstormed a way to help out through something they both love: food.
From there, the One Love Supper for Jamaica was born.
Gather ‘round the table
Chef Pulapaka is a James Beard Foundation finalist—an award that recognizes chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists in the United States. Owens is a self-proclaimed foodie. The two realized that a supper would be the best way to bring people together for one cause on 30 November.
Different restaurants around Deland and Orlando, Florida will provide island-inspired dishes for the evening. Reggae music will fill the building as a small part of the town transforms into a piece of Jamaica, with posters sent directly from the country’s Tourist Board.
While the restaurants may not be Jamaican, the food will all be island-inspired. 100% of the funds raised by this community supper will be donated to two charities: World Central Kitchen and the Global Empowerment Movement. Both are on the ground in the country now as, Owens noted, the reports she’s getting “out of Jamaica is that it is worse that you could imagine.”
What I need is a hug
Following the massive storm, thousands were without power. Only in the last week has the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) been able to restore electricity to some 300,000 customers (64% of the company’s service on the island). President and CEO of JPS Hugh Grant told journalists that the scale of the damage in western parishes of the island mean “this is much more than repair and restore—it is a redesign and rebuild our facilities.”
Spanish field hospital set up in Jamaica begins recieving patients in Falmouth, Jamaica (ANSA)
It is not just electricity that people are struggling to recover. Owens noted that a number of doctors, nurses, and medical staff from all over the world are traveling to Jamaica to help an already strained healthcare system. Medical staff are working around the clock to help provide care to those impacted by the storm.
Owen’s friend, who is a doctor, and his wife visited Maroon Town in St. James, where she said that “healthcare has not reached that area yet.”
There is nothing—no food, no running water. The friends recounted people having to drink from the river, broken glass and nails scattered all over the ground. The response: those who had come to help removed their own shoes and gave them to those who needed them.
The United Kingdom has sent a team of 12 people—general practicioners, nurses, midwives, and logistics experts—to offer medical care to communities where the facilities have been damaged or destroyed. The UK Minister for the Caribbean, Chris Elmore, explained that “the medical team will provide vital treatment and care for those affected, as well as helping local services while they are stretched and working in difficult conditions as they build back from the impact of this hurricane.”
The big tsunami: Mental health
But what Owens’ friends also found was that more than physical aid, the people of Jamaica needed to know and feel they are cared for. For example, one little boy needed a tetanus shot, but kept refusing to get it. After some insisting, he told the doctors, “All I want now is a hug.”
“The emotional toll has not been realized yet,” Owens stressed. Her friend said that when she looked into the children’s eyes, they were vacant. “You could see trauma.”
Motivated by these stories, Owens will bring psychiatrists to Jamaica when she goes in February. She says now the focus is providing food and shelter. “We’re saving lives where we can because there are cuts and bruises, and we have to make sure that cholera doesn’t set in. We have to put a roof over people’s heads.”
Yet, she explained, “the big tsunami is coming, which is mental health.” And she begs the question: What do you do with all this trauma?
Not her first rodeo
This One Love Supper fundraiser is not the first initiative Owens has taken on to help people around the world. A few years ago, she founded Desert Sage to continue her work in Sub-Saharan Africa to help reduce maternal and infant mortality by offering training to nurses and doctors in the Congo.
Today, Desert Sage offers full scholarships to young women to become midwives in Ghana.
