Hurricane Melissa Relief Efforts
On October 28, 2025, Hurricane Melissa struck Jamaica as a Category 5 storm with 185 mph winds, causing catastrophic flooding, landslides, and widespread infrastructure failure. The scale of the crisis is staggering: 1.6 million people affected and 140 major hospitals and clinics damaged or closed. Healthcare across the island is strained as responders work to care for patients with injuries, chronic conditions, pregnancy complications, and trauma.
Amid this devastation, New York, home to hundreds of thousands with Caribbean roots, mobilized immediately. Afya, along with a broad coalition of New York’s hospitals, unions, government partners, and logistics experts, responded on Day 1.
Rapid, Coordinated Response for Jamaica Relief
Just one day after landfall, Afya shipped 20 pallets of medical supplies valued at $130,000 through our partner Global Empowerment Mission (GEM). Read press coverage by Fox 5 New York, News 12 Westchester, and PIX 11, spotlighting the organization’s swift action and community impact. On November 13, Afya shipped an additional 20 pallets valued at $170,000 via a new collaboration with DHL at JFK and Blue Cross Blue Shield National Labor Office. Afya sent PPE, advanced wound care, hygiene kits, tarps, infant essentials, and medical equipment to protect responders and support families in crisis—and more supplies stand at the ready.
Because of New York’s generosity, Afya received an extraordinary influx of in-kind donations of medical supplies from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York-Presbyterian, Mount Sinai, Westchester Medical Center, NYU Langone, Montefiore, Maimonides, NYC Emergency Management, and others. These life-saving items continue to pour into our warehouse in Yonkers, NY, and will be shipped to Jamaica.
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What’s Behind our Rapid Response Model
Since 2008, we’ve built a disaster response model that works. Afya rapidly responds in the wake of disaster and stays until health systems fully function again. New York’s hospitals donate a range of medical supplies to our Yonkers warehouse. There, along with the help of thousands of volunteers, we sort, quality-check, and pack shipments. Afya tailors each shipment to what’s needed on the ground. We then deploy through rapid freight to trusted partners, at no cost to those that need our help. We’ve used this exact system in Haiti, Puerto Rico, Maui, Los Angeles, and Ukraine.
A Growing Relief Coalition
Afya has built an unprecedented coalition to accelerate life-saving support, including the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA), 1199SEIU, NYS Governor’s Office, GEM, the Government of Jamaica, and many others. Several of these partners joined the GNYHA-led press conference at Montefiore Einstein on November 24.
Afya is coordinating directly with the Ministry of Health and providers on the ground who are telling us what medical supplies are most urgently needed. As a result, Afya’s response is restoring access to care at multiple sites across the island. Most recently, clinics in Westmoreland and St. Elizabeth parishes are up and running because of these supplies.
Our Promise to Restore Access to Healthcare in Jamaica
Jamaica faces a long recovery, and Afya is committed to staying throughout the entire rebuilding process, not just the emergency phase. Afya’s response will continue until the healthcare system is restored, and people can access the services they need again. We will donate high-quality surplus medical supplies and equipment from New York–area hospitals to hospitals, clinics, and partners on the ground in Jamaica.
Support Afya’s Hurricane Melissa Response and Relief
Hurricane Melissa Donation Guidelines
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Donate today to our Disaster Fund
Hurricane Melissa Relief Efforts
Hurricane Melissa, a Category 5 storm with 175 mph winds and up to 30 inches of rainfall, devastated the Caribbean, especially Jamaica, Cuba, and Haiti.
Afya deployed 21 pallets of lifesaving supplies valued at $130,000 to Jamaica on the day after Melissa made landfall, in partnership with Global Empowerment Mission. Inside those pallets were PPE that helps prevent disease outbreaks in crowded shelters, feminine hygiene kits that preserve dignity in crisis, and medical supplies that can mean the difference between a treatable wound and a fatal infection.
On November 14, Afya also coordinated with Blue Cross Blue Shield National Labor Office and DHL’s JFK Gateway team to recover and ship 20 additional pallets of medical supplies valued at $170,000 from our Yonkers warehouse to Jamaica. These supplies—requested by Jamaica’s Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM)—included wound-care materials, gloves, PPE, and a significant amount of newborn-care essentials such as diapers and formula, all urgently needed by clinics and frontline responders across the island. Afya is deeply grateful for DHL’s partnership and rapid mobilization.
What we’ve sent so far is just the beginning.
Afya continues to mobilize medical, humanitarian, and hygiene supplies needed by frontline responders and healthcare workers serving the millions of people affected by Hurricane Melissa. We do this at no cost to partners on the ground because of supporters like you.
Your immediate support to our Disaster Fund will help us send critical aid to the Caribbean fast.
Hurricane Melissa Donation Guidelines
Donate Via Our Amazon Wishlist
Active Response: 2025 Hurricane Season
Afya is actively monitoring developments throughout the Atlantic and Gulf regions and preparing emergency shipments in advance of landfall and damage assessments. Our warehouse team is staging inventory, coordinating logistics, and activating partner networks to ensure rapid response.
We are committed to addressing immediate medical and humanitarian needs while laying the groundwork for long-term health system recovery in impacted communities.
20 Years of Disaster Response experience
- Prepositioning supplies in our Yonkers warehouse to ensure fast mobilization
- Coordinating with local and regional partners to assess damage and prioritize distribution to the hardest hit areas
- Collecting and distributing hurricane-specific supplies, including water purification tablets, tarps, emergency lighting, and personal hygiene items (all shipped items meet our minimum one-year shelf-life requirement)
- Packing and dispatching tailored shipments of wound care, infection control, hygiene products, flashlights, and other essential humanitarian supplies
- Delivering resources to health facilities, shelters, and community hubs that care for displaced individuals, seniors, families, and vulnerable populations
- Working alongside grassroots organizations to reach communities that may be overlooked.
Every Afya shipment is tailored, timely, and backed by a team that understands the urgency of disaster response. By anticipating needs and acting quickly, we help stabilize local healthcare systems, reduce suffering, and support recovery.
Your support powers this work. Together, we can make sure no community is left behind when the next storm hits.
Help save and rebuild lives
To learn more about Afya’s hurricane response or how to donate to active relief efforts, please contact: donor_support@afyafoundation.org
ACTIVE RESPONSE: MILTON & HELENE
Afya continues to respond to the healthcare needs of people whose lives were torn apart by Hurricane Helene af across six states, leaving a trail of destruction spanning 600 miles. The death toll has reached 130 and counting, with hundreds still unaccounted for. Millions are without power, and flooding and landslides have severely impacted infrastructure.
In response, Afya has partnered with Distribute Aid as we prepare our first shipment to North Carolina. Afya is committed to supporting the evolving needs of the region to strengthen long-term recovery. By focusing on both immediate and sustained health outcomes, we aim to enhance resilience in the affected communities.
PHASE I: Immediate Response
Phase I of our response consists of multiple shipments going to Distribute Aid which has bolstered disaster readiness in the Gulf Coast by securing warehouse space and training local representatives in several states, including North Carolina. We have identified urgent needs for Asheville’s Medic Collective and community-based organizations in affected regions.
Afya is preparing initial shipments of critical supplies including Nitrile gloves, N95 masks, gowns, Tyvek suits, eye protection, diapers, flashlights, generators, wheelchairs, walkers, and crutches. These supplies will be sent to on-the-ground partners in Greensboro, NC, for distribution by trained grassroots volunteers in the impacted areas. Each shipment is estimated to touch 40,000 lives.
Help save and rebuild lives
To learn more about Afya’s response to Hurricane Season or how you can restrict your donation to any active response, please contact donor_support@afyafoundation.org
