BLACK RIVER, St Elizabeth:

With the hurricane season fast approaching, a single mother with six children in St Elizabeth is in dire need of a roof over her head and is desperately seeking the help of concerned Jamaicans in building a new house before the expected heavy rains in June.

Lona-Lyn Smith, a peanut farmer and her six girls, Alicia, Melicia, Japhilia, Roshana, and twins Sasheena and Sashana of Russell district were left partially homeless after Hurricane Dean severely damaged their house, leaving them with the one room in which they now live.

Last Tuesday, two concerned Jamaicans, Marsha Smalling, president of the Kiwanis Club of Santa Cruz and Vincent Peterkin, professor of education at the Northern Caribbean University, paid the family a visit and presented them with well-needed gifts.

Getting donations

Smalling, a teacher at Munro Preparatory and the person behind raising funds and getting donations for the family, said she learnt of Smith's plight after a community worker, Lorna Levy, brought it to her attention.

She told The Gleaner that there would be a workday today and she was appealing to residents living in the community to come out and assist in rebuilding the house for the family.

She presented pillows donated by the students of Munro, clothing and stuffed toys to the family on Tuesday.

Professor Peterkin, who presented Smith with bedding materials on behalf of the Adventist Develop-ment Relief Agency, used the occasion to call upon other such agencies to come on board and render their assistance.