Empowered to Recovered: From Cash Assistance to Curry Chicken and Dumplings to Community

“When I lost my job after the hurricane, all I could do was cry. As a single mother, I worried every day about how to feed my children and send them to school. This cash assistance came at the right time because I had nothing left,” shared Trician Ellis, recalling the weeks after Hurricane Melissa tore through her community.

Before the storm, Trician worked in the tourism sector as a steward, a job she loved and depended on to support her four children. But when the hotel where she worked suffered heavy damage, operations shut down indefinitely, and like many others in Jamaica’s tourism belt, she was suddenly unemployed.

At the time, Trician was living with her mother, caring for her children under one roof. The hurricane had ripped sections of the roof away, flooded the inside of the house, and destroyed most of their belongings, including the additional bathroom she was slowly building onto her mother’s home. With no income and a damaged home, the days that followed were filled with fear and uncertainty.

“There were nights I didn’t sleep,” she said. “I kept wondering what I was going to do. How would we eat? How would my children go back to school?”

A First Hot Meal and a Moment of Relief

When Trician received cash assistance, the burden eased just enough for her to breathe again. She still remembers the first food she bought for her family, the first hot dish they had since the hurricane.

“Curry chicken and dumplings,” she said with a smile. “After weeks of tinned food, it felt like hope.”

Even in the midst of her own hardship, Trician’s instinct was to care for others. With only a small amount of food and limited resources, she still prepared extra plates for neighbours who were struggling just as much as she was. 

“If I had it, they had it too,” she said. Her generosity, given at a time when she herself had almost nothing, captures the quiet strength and resilience found across so many Caribbean women.

Her actions show a simple truth: when you empower a woman, you empower an entire community. The support she received through cash assistance not only restored dignity and stability for her own family,  it also created a ripple effect, allowing her to help the people around her. In moments of crisis, women like Trician become anchors of stability, care, and hope, holding communities together even when the storm has passed, but recovery is still far from complete.

Meeting Needs and Restoring Dignity

The cash assistance helped Trician buy food, school supplies, and hygiene items, many of the basic things she could no longer afford after losing her job. It allowed her to make decisions based on her family’s actual needs, restoring a sense of control at a time when everything else felt fragile.

Looking Ahead with Strength

Today, while the road to full recovery is still long, Trician is doing everything she can to rebuild for her children. She hopes to return to work once the tourism sector in her area recovers, and she continues to support her neighbours whenever she can.

“This help didn’t just feed us,” Trician said. “It helped me stand again.”

Through the invaluable support of donors such as CERF, as well as contributions from partners including Bank of America, the Government of Canada, ECHO, FCDO, Flex/Twilio.org, the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB), and the United States Government, the Hurricane Melissa Cash Assistance Programme was able to reach families like Trician’s ; ensuring they could meet their immediate needs and begin the path to recovery with dignity.