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A group of skilled tradespersons and health care leaders from Toronto travelled on their own dime in December and February to restore schools and rebuild homes in Jamaica that had been destroyed by the Category 5 winds and flooding of Hurricane Melissa last October.

Six members of Carpenters’ Local 27 participated as part of Toronto’s broader coalition of unions, businesses and community groups mobilizing relief efforts.

For Rokhaya Gueye, who led the Local 27 carpenters, choosing to take off two weeks, work long hours for no pay was a no brainer.

“As carpenters being able to use our own skillsets and help out, why not?”

Gueye, who is in stakeholder relations with the Carpenters Regional Council and the Ontario chair of the Sisters in the Brotherhood, says the mission included a staffer from the Toronto Community Benefits Network, Ivan Dawns, business representative of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, and a union electrician and plumber.

Also part of the coalition was a group of health care workers who brought medical supplies and provided mental health support.

In February, the team was assigned to a school restoration in St. Elizabeth Parish, on the southwestern coast, an area hit hardest by Hurricane Melissa. Catastrophic flooding and extensive damage to infrastructure was widespread.

“It looked like somebody dropped a bomb on the area. It was horrific,” she says.

Gueye says the hurricane left many people homeless without food, water or electricity.

The Canadian team worked alongside a crew of 27 troops from the Jamaican Defence Force who had skilled trades backgrounds. The work included roofing, framing and other jobs required to get the school operational.  

Gueye’s team also built a house.

She says while it was difficult not to come to the aid of others – including a number of her hotel staff who were left homeless – the carpenters had no choice because they were on a tight schedule rebuilding the school.

“We did what we could by offering them tools, tarps, tie-down ropes and other materials” but the team couldn’t spare time to help them rebuild their homes.

The team helped restore three schools and built houses over the two separate missions.

While the carpenters paid for most of their own expenses (many took vacation days to make the trip) and the hours were long and the work hard for no pay, Gueye would be quick to do it again.

“Everyone on the team was really happy to fulfill the objective of restoring the schools, restoring people’s hope, giving back and letting them know this is what Canadians are great at,” Gueye says.

This is her third year on a humanitarian mission in Jamaica. She led teams to build houses for families in need the two previous years.   

She plans to return with Local 27 carpenters in June.