Some of the volunteers who participated in the exercise.
PHILIPSBURG--After being displaced for four years, Middle Region resident Bernard Rohan is now able to sleep more comfortably in part of his home thanks to the benevolent efforts of Tzu Chi St. Maarten volunteers, who spent their Emancipation Day repairing part of the roof of his home and cleaning up the environment.
Some 80 per cent of Rohan's home was destroyed by Hurricane Irma in 2017, forcing the family to separate and live with friends and relatives, while Rohan replaced some old zinc on part of the roof just to cover a section where he can shelter. He lived in this section for all these years with tattered zinc sheets just resting on the roof with no reinforcement.
Rohan has spent the four years since the hurricane hoping to receive assistance to rebuild, but the COVID-19 pandemic only made his situation worse, as he lost his job. Life became stressful and hopeless, compounding his already fragile health conditions.
Volunteers working on the roof.
Through a friend, he joined Tzu Chi and began volunteering. One day he mentioned concerns that the part of the roof that he had temporarily fixed could be blown away if another hurricane hits the island. He did not know what to do and was down and worried.
Volunteers cleaning up the area.
Given the situation, volunteers evaluated his home and proposed ideas on how to assist him. The assessment showed that it would cost more than US $25,000 to repair the entire roof. Rohan understood that it would be costly for volunteers, who are also facing their own personal hardships, to repair the entire roof and said he would be satisfied with just the section where he is sheltering being reinforced with concrete as he would then have a safer place to cover his head.
Volunteers working hard to reinforce part of the roof.
Volunteers got together from early in the morning on Emancipation Day and worked all day to replace all the damaged zinc sheets on the section of the roof where he shelters with new ones and to reinforce the roof with concrete. Volunteers also cleaned the entire premises.
Rohan is grateful for the assistance of his fellow volunteers to help him sleep safer and better at night.
