Hurricane Maria had an especially crippling impact on the island. The hurricane hit Dominica on September 18th as a category 5 and 95% of the infrastructure was damaged or destroyed. We supported the relief and recovery efforts of Salisbury, supplementing national and international aid (and at times being the stand-alone provider of relief the weeks immediately after the hurricane) as the villagers tried to rebuild their homes and their lives.
The creation of SCD is an organized effort to maintain our ability to change the lives of our people longer- term, to ensure organization, structure and strategy to not only disaster relief, but community development.
We aim to sustainably provide support in the form of funds toward important projects that can contribute to the development and benefit of the town and its residents, and most importantly, to partner with the local Disaster Relief Committee for Disaster preparedness and relief (primarily hurricane) including helping with the provision of food, water, first aid and other medical supplies, and general emergency items.
The Salisbury Community Development organization was initially created to support hurricane relief and recovery efforts in the town of Salisbury on the island of Dominica. Natives of the town living in the US, Canada and the UK pooled resources and raised funds from family, friends and co-workers to deliver emergency relief – water, food and medical supplies - to the village immediately after the destructive Tropical storm Erika left the island severely damaged in 2015.
In 2017, the island was once again impacted. Hurricane Maria hit Dominica on September 18th as a category 5 hurricane. 95% of the infrastructure was damaged or destroyed. More than 50 people were reported dead or missing. The population of 70,000 was emotionally and psychologically traumatized by the hurricane. We supported the relief and recovery efforts, supplementing national aid (and at times being the stand-only provider of aid) as the villagers tried to rebuild their homes and their lives.
We have evolved this effort into an organization that can provide support longer term to the town of Salisbury through disaster preparedness and relief efforts, as well as projects that support community development.
