When Suzie-Ann Douglas saw images of rooftops ripped off homes and hospitals across Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa, she couldn’t stop crying.
“My first emotion when I saw the snippets of the roof that came off the hospital in St. Elizabeth, tears came to my eye immediately, and I immediately picked up the phone to call my sister-in-law that’s there to see if they were okay,” she said. “They told me that their roof was leaking. So the tears just kept on flowing down. And then to hear that the airports — that no one can go in and out — it’s overwhelming for me.”
For Douglas, who has lived in New York for more than 30 years, the heartbreak quickly turned into action. She and her husband Collin Douglas own The Original Dumpling Shop in the Baychester section of the Bronx. Their restaurant, which is usually packed with customers wanting a taste of authentic Jamaican food, is now filled with water, first aid kits and sanitary pads as it’s doubling as a donation site for relief supplies in collaboration with the JAHJAH Foundation — short for Jamaicans Abroad Helping Jamaicans at Home. Items being collected include canned goods, clothing, and personal hygiene products…