Donisha Prendergast advocates for people sheltered at school

By Neil Armstrong

When schools reopened on January 5 in Jamaica for the Easter term, Petersfield High School in Westmoreland was not ready to welcome back students because several residents affected by Hurricane Melissa are still sheltered temporarily there.

According to a CVM Television news report last week, the school was being cleaned and “security measures are in place to ensure the separation of shelter occupants from the school population once classes resume.”

In December, Prime Minister Dr. Andrew Holness visited the school to attend a Christmas treat for seniors. He thanked the shelter staff for maintaining safety, hygiene and access to essential services and “called on residents to work with government officials to create a pathway to better conditions.”

“The Prime Minister also outlined several pathways for affected residents, including assistance for those who have nowhere to go, as well as options for families whose homes were damaged or destroyed,” notes the Jamaica Information Service.

Donisha Prendergast, founder and executive director of Humanity Ova Vanity (HOV), a grassroots organization committed to fostering meaningful connections “between corporate and citizen social ‘response-ability’”, has been advocating for the residents.

Speaking with The Caribbean Camera in December at the Bob Marley Museum—once the home of her famous grandfather, Bob Marley—before heading to the Celebration of Life for Jimmy Cliff, the Jamaican-Canadian described Westmoreland as “the poor people’s side of Jamaica where there is a lot of captured land.”

“The people belong to the land and the land belong to the people because these are the children of the children of the ones who never left the plantation,” said Prendergast.

She said the residents of Petersfield are suffering from lack of governance, services, and any kind of love or rehabilitation.

“We have to challenge these structures and we have to demand space for ourselves and empower our brothers and sisters to know rights and share best practices and hold leaders accountable with a graceful but defiant voice.”

Prendergast said she appreciated the government meeting HOV at the school to see the work that they have done.

According to her, she told the prime minister that the government could not put the people under a tent and he agreed. She said he noted that they are looking at different housing solutions.

Two days after the hurricane hit the island on October 28, 2025, Humanity Ova Vanity set itself up in the community and has been focused on housing solutions “that respond to the nuances of the people.”

“He was open. I asked him what the follow-up was and he directed me to the Minister of Labour and Social Security who we have since had follow-up conversations with, but my reservation now is how slow protocol will move in contrast to the need of humanity right now. Protocol should never supersede humanity.”

Prendergast said HOV is continuing with its own rehousing responses which includes an emergency and disaster preparedness approach.

She said it would be easy to give residents supplies to rebuild their homes but months later they would be in hurricane season again.

“What we are suggesting is practical models that can be replicated and that can be standardised that respond to what we have found through our experience of this very hurricane. We’re talking about protocol that empowers psychosocial support while we’re looking for where are they going to live.”

It also includes examining building materials to determine if they are sufficient and if the building codes need to be changed.

Prendergast said it was while visiting a friend at the shelter that she realized the need of the occupants so she shared some footage with a local television station to inform the nation.

HOV created a mobile dispatch unit made up of bikers, who were themselves homeless and living at the shelter, helping daily to gather information from communities.

“They become first responders and go out in the communities with books writing down notes to bring back to us,” said Prendergast, noting that everything started to respond organically.

She said seeing the community “heal itself and decide on its own solutions” has been liberating.

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