Church Homes and Dormitory Space: A Plan to Move 200 Students Out of Melissa’s Hardest-Hit Parishes

• About 200 students from five devastated parishes are to be relocated to North West St Catherine
• Church congregations will host the children and provide dormitory space and supervision
• Three high schools and 12 primary schools have committed places
• The Linstead Ministers Fraternal says all 30 of its member churches are on board

When Hurricane Melissa left schools in western Jamaica badly damaged, a St Catherine MP turned to the churches to house the children who could not attend class. Damion Crawford, MP for St Catherine North West, launched the North West St Catherine Solidarity Student Exchange Programme to relocate about 200 primary and secondary students from St Elizabeth, Westmoreland, Hanover, St James and Trelawny, the Gleaner reported.

The children were to arrive on December 18, spend Christmas in the constituency, start classes in January and stay until June 2026. “Three of our high schools and 12 of our primary schools have committed their space, and the ministers fraternal have engaged their congregation to host the children as well as [provide] dormitory spaces and provide inhouse supervision,” Crawford said. He described it as a church-led programme, calling the church the most connected institution in Jamaica, and said moving the children quickly was urgent because of social and health risks in the worst-hit communities.

Crawford said the programme would manage risks through a big brother and big sister scheme, peer counselling, counselling for host families, a pastor assigned to each family for weekly contact and a psychiatrist’s services. Church attendance would be mandatory. Calvin Woodham, secretary of the Linstead Ministers Fraternal, said: “We have 30 member churches and they are all on board. Some will be hosting students while some will be providing supplies.” Ewarton High principal Jacqueline Simpson-Huntley said background checks would be done before students were admitted.

Educator Camile Henlon-Lake said the hurricane had left many children “very vulnerable, displaced and in need of stability and care that only strong communities can provide”.

The plan puts a number on something often overlooked in recovery: when school buildings fail, children need not just classrooms but beds. In this case the housing came from church families’ homes and from dormitory space the churches could offer, with pastors providing oversight. The episode shows how much hidden capacity sits in ordinary Jamaican homes and church properties, and why rebuilding damaged schools quickly matters as much for families as for education.

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