Caribbean Hurricane Relief

Hello donors!

We are coming up on the one-year anniversary of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, two of the strongest Atlantic storms in history that devastated many of the Caribbean islands. All Hands and Hearts continues to be a source of support on the ground for families still trying to recover.

In Dominica, our work on the Paix Bouche Pre and Primary School has been completed! We focused on rebuilding a more sustainable roof and structure, remodeling the layout of the ground floor to add one more classroom, and repairing the toilet blocks, stage, canteen and playground areas. Our teams have now started work on Mourne Prosper School and continue to work on home rebuilds in areas of the island that were hardest hit.

In Tortola, the teams have completed debris removal for homes and are continuing our work in restoring education to hundreds of students in the community. Our projects are on schedule at the Wonder Years Day Care & Pre-School and the Rainbow Transitional Home and Autism Centre, and since our last update, we have begun work on the Ivan Dawson Primary School. 

In Puerto Rico, the teams in Barranquitas and Yabucoa are continuing to help the community with their greatest need: roof repairs. Our work has helped us develop what we refer to as “Resilient Roofing Standards,” which are a set of standards that we uphold to ensure our roof repair work is sustainable enough to withstand any hurricane with wind speeds up to 150MPH. In Barranquitas the teams have completed over 70 roof repairs, mainly focusing on CGI roof repairs. In Yabucoa the teams have completed over 100 concrete roof repairs and critical repairs, focusing mainly on exterior doors and windows that were damaged in the storm.

In the USVI both the St. Thomas and St. John programs continue on with the recovery phase. To date the teams have completed work on over 700 sites and impacted more than 5,900 individuals. Over 1,000 volunteers have spent more than 105,000 hours mucking and gutting, sanitizing, removing debris, and rebuilding homes and schools across the islands.

The needs across all of the islands are still great even now that a year has passed. As long as All Hands and Hearts has the resources our teams will continue to work every day to aid in the recovery process. We can’t complete this work without support from donors like you and we appreciate your commitment to helping those in need. Thank you!