Carry On Friends: The Caribbean American Experience

Rethinking Caribbean Disaster Relief: A Call to Action

Kerry-Ann Reid-Brown Season 2025 Episode 247

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Is the Caribbean prepared for the next hurricane season, or are we stuck in a reactive cycle? As I look back on the turmoil of the 2024 hurricane season, I question the chaotic and fragmented approach to disaster relief efforts in the diaspora. Many in the diaspora are eager to help but are caught in a web of mistrust surrounding donation processes. The absence of a centralized organization that can effectively manage and coordinate relief efforts leaves us at a crossroads. The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) under CARICOM exists, and seems to be in the best position to bridge this gap and engage the Caribbean diaspora, especially in the United States, to foster a unified and effective disaster management strategy.

Looking ahead to the 2025 hurricane season, there's an urgent call for community preparedness and collaboration. We need to come together to strategize with a focus on proactive planning rather than reactive scrambling. This is a conversation for everyone—community members and organizations alike. By publishing this episode early in the year, my hope is to spark dialogue that will lead to meaningful collective action. Let’s build a network of trust and efficiency, ensuring that when the storms hit, we are ready to stand strong together.

UPDATE: The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) exists under CARICOM. At the time of my initial research and recording, CDEMA did not accept public donations. It appears to have recently created an account to accept donations for Hurricane Beryl relief. While this is a step in the right direction, there is still a significant gap in the system.

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Speaker 1:

Hello everyone, welcome back to another episode of Carry On Friends, the Caribbean American experience, and in this episode, mawa reason with Uno a little bit. So, with the 2024 hurricane season behind us and we look ahead to 2025. Now, if you don't know, hurricane season is from June to November every year and this has been happening at least since the 1950s. And I know this because, being a man sing about 51 storm right, but also, on a personal level, months seeing about 51 stop right, but also on a personal level. I was old enough and remembered what it was like going through Hurricane Gilbert in Jamaica in 1988. As a child. It's a very different experience now through the lens of being a mom.

Speaker 1:

But, that said, the 2024 hurricane season started really early. Normally hurricanes come around July because by then ocean waters warm up or whatever. But what I experienced during the hurricane season last year, where Grenada, st Vincent, jamaica, other Caribbean countries were impacted I found that there was a lot of activity online and also, at the same time, I was receiving texts from people who wanted to be part of the relief efforts but they did not trust, or rather, they did not know who to trust or where to send their money and who was reputable, and all those concerns are legitimate, and so herein lies the whole point of this episode. I want to talk about how we are approaching disaster relief in the Caribbean, and I've been annoyed, you know, because since I've been doing this podcast for the last 10 years, there's been some serious hurricane seasons and it's the same thing. So what happened in 2024, I've seen something similar in prior years and I've been annoyed, confused about how unorganized the Caribbean, or maybe the diaspora, is around disaster relief.

Speaker 1:

And when disaster happens in the Caribbean countries, that's when there's a mobilization to collect donations and that has a place, yes, but my question goes back to hurricane season happens every year from June to November and it just feels very reactive, and then, to make matters worse, there's no central place to send donations. Again, people don't know who to trust, where to donate, because there are too many places and people that are doing the same thing. This one is collecting money or this one is promoting something else over here, and it becomes very confusing and we hurt our own efforts because we've diluted the focus, that people don't know what to do, where to send it to, whatever it is, whether it's monetary donation, canned goods, clothes, all of these things and people don't know who to trust. And it's just frustrating for a region that is impacted by climate change, is mostly reactive and fragmented when it comes to disaster relief efforts on the diaspora front. Right, because, let's face it, most of the Caribbean countries, they rely on the diaspora to support the relief efforts. Right, and then, adding, on top of that I can speak as a Jamaican right when you add this layer of scamming, jamaica has a. It's a high corridor for scamming. It is what it is right. That increases the lack of trust, because it appears that everybody and their mother are collect money or whatever, right.

Speaker 1:

And so, as I was reflecting on 2024, I'm like we need to do better. What can we do better? I'm like we need to do better. What can we do better? And I don't know what the options are really. And it's in having this thought process I discovered. Well, let me tell you what I was thinking before I got to where I discovered.

Speaker 1:

So the question I asked myself was like, why can't we have like an NGO or some kind of organization that's able to accept donations, manage the donations, the money, the funds, and coordinates relief efforts? And they would also be efficient to manage the money, because, although hurricane season happens every year, there's not always a hurricane that causes disaster. So they should also be able to manage and distribute funds, because there are different projects or different relief efforts in different Caribbean countries that would need to be addressed year round. Right, because if it's not hurricane, it's flooding. You know we have volcanic activity, you know there are a whole heap of things going on in the Caribbean that would need relief or support, right? And so that got me thinking.

Speaker 1:

And so the first place that I go to is CARICOM, the Caribbean community. Like, what can they do? And that's how I came across. It's called CDEMA and it's the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency and it is CARICOM's disaster coordination body. I found an email address on the website and I sent an email to see if there was a representative who was interested in coming on the podcast, and I haven't received any responses and I've sent multiple emails.

Speaker 1:

But from what I gather is, their mandate is for disaster management across CARICOM member states or countries, right, and I believe on the website it says somewhere that they do not accept public donations, which then creates a significant gap, right? So the question I was asking myself why doesn't something exist to manage the disaster relief? Right, there is a place that does that. It's called the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, because in my head I was thinking in American terms, like FEMA. So something exists, but they don't accept donations. So that still is part of the bigger problem that we have, right?

Speaker 1:

So I'm like, all right, we still need to figure out how to address the fragmented efforts of individual groups and nonprofits. You know, ad hoc things across the diaspora. I'm in America so I can see America, but I'm sure things are happening in Canada and things are happening in the UK, right, and each country might have its own thing. That's going on, right. So I'm really focused on America, since I live here and we can speak a little bit more to you know how American nonprofit systems should operate, and so I was thinking, in addition to this CDEMA existing, is it possible for us to have an organization that is able to maybe work with the CDEMA on what needs funding or what areas need funding? Right, because this nonprofit that I'm envisioning in my head they are going to focus on hurricane relief. Right, because hurricane is the most destructive. But in the recent years, you know, we've had earthquakes, we're having volcanic activity, and every year, every year, we have flooding and erosion again coming up. 2024, a whole bunch of rain fall at Jamaica, right. And so if this organization is able to accept donations monetary donations or donations or coordinate the collection of canned goods or clothing or other things, in my head I'm thinking that they're able to direct funds and supplies as needed, as needed, right, supporting the rebuilding or the shoring up or the strengthening of infrastructure. Right, because we know that hurricane season will come, we need to make sure different things are updated or improved or we're ready for the hurricane season.

Speaker 1:

In addition to collecting the money, the public accountability part is key, right, there has to be transparency in how monies are being collected. You know, like an organization any organization that collect money, you want to give people a receipt so they can collect money. Right now, when I look online and people collecting money like, yes, I donate my $20, but what did my $20 go towards? Like I don't know, am I getting a confirmation that this went towards this? So, in addition to public accountability, we need some reporting, you know, on where that money was spent and the impact of the money being spent in a particular area. We need transparency, right? So, in addition to collecting money, they have oversight. You say, okay, we raised X amount of money, this is where money was spent. It was spent in this country, that country, and it was spent on doing X, y and Z and we also need to see the impact of that money being raised in the community.

Speaker 1:

So, from an American perspective, we need to have audits. You need to audit all the money I spend because, again, we know that corruption exists in any form. So we still need to make sure so there's an audit to make sure so nobody not teeth the money or mismanage the money, because again, that continues to erode public trust. Right, again, the impact reports are going to be critical because, yes, I donate the money, but you spend the money there. So why was the money being spent there? What is the outcome of the money being spent there? What is the outcome of the money being spent there? Do we have to go back and spend money in this particular area every time?

Speaker 1:

Right, and that is going to be particularly relevant if money is being done on a project that's not necessarily a hurricane relief activity, because with hurricane relief it is more like getting food and rebuilding infrastructure, but, like in flooding and erosion, like things that are happening just because the rain fall hard, heavy rains have been falling or whatever. Right, so we have those things, but they are important. Strengthening our defenses against flood, erosion, landslide, all of these things. They impact almost all Caribbean countries. Right, the Caribbean is. It's so impacted and I'm just, I just want more awareness. Now, if you're listening and you're like Kerianne, something exists. That's great, but that also highlights part of the problem. It's so fragmented that we don't know that an organization exists, and getting the word out to the community that they exist is also part of this. I don't have an answer.

Speaker 1:

Right, the diaspora clearly plays a vital role in our disaster relief efforts and, you know, having a centralized, trusted organization can make the diasporic contributions more impactful. It can be, again, more proactive. We're not waiting until a hurricane hit. We've already donated money year round, etc. Etc. And so when we get the forecast a hurricane, it's mobilization time. It's not about oh, let's wait and see, and see what we're collecting, we're mobilizing and we're figuring out where money's going to be dispersed to. We could go into so many details about how an organization like that can operate, but that's just what I'm thinking.

Speaker 1:

I really feel like we as a region, need to figure out how we're going to mature and leverage the power of the diaspora in a more meaningful and organized way to get things done, because it's our impact. And then let's be clear we also have like for Jamaica, for instance, alumni Association all boys, all girls organizations and they have specific mandates Right, and their mandates are very clear. So if, in the hurricane, my old high school was damaged, you know the Caribbean, you know who love the region and would like to support. It's not just for the diaspora to organize and centralize the collection and donation of funds. You have people who love our region, love specific countries and they want to support, but they need trust in organizations to do that.

Speaker 1:

And my question is as a community, what can we do? So, if you know of organizations, let me know. I'd love to hear from you your thoughts on this, because, when it comes to whole monies collected and trust, that's a big issue for us. And so, as we look ahead for 2025, and that's why I'm publishing this episode early in the year, as a community, different organizations come together and figure out what we're going to do to prepare ourselves for the upcoming hurricane season. I would love to hear from you. Send a DM, send a message. Hello at Carry On Friends, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this and until next episode, walk good.

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