In keeping with its longstanding commitment to partnering with locally rooted organizations to respond when disaster strikes, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) has made grants to three nonprofit organizations, two working in Jamaica and one in Haiti, to help meet emergency needs and contribute to stability as a precursor to recovery. These efforts recognize the double effect of climate change: not only did it likely make the hurricane more powerful, but its effects were already sapping the resilience of communities in the storm’s path.
In Jamaica:
- Through the Clara Lionel Foundation, a nonprofit rooted in the Caribbean whose expertise includes climate emergency response that prioritizes the safety and wellbeing of women and girls, SNF’s support is going toward Haiti Air Ambulance, which is lending a hand to expand emergency medical care and transport in Jamaica; the Island Futures Fund, which is helping secure safe spaces and essential materials to keep schooling going in Westmoreland, St. Elizabeth, and St. James; and GirlsCare, which is delivering essentials like bottled water, temporary roofing tarps, power banks, mattresses, and other critical supplies.
- SNF is also supporting, via American Friends of Jamaica, the LASCO Chin Foundation in replicating a disaster-tested model for distributing care packages with food, necessities for women and children, hygiene supplies, and other essentials that are needed immediately.
In Haiti:
- Ayiti Community Trust prioritizes the agency and dignity of the communities it serves, working closely with local Haitian-led organizations, and with support from SNF, it aims to provide psychological support to thousands of people in the form of psychological first aid, group counseling, arts therapy, and more at local third spaces designated as Community Resilience Hubs.
Disaster response has been an integral part of SNF’s grantmaking from our earliest years, with grants responding to Hurricane Mitch in 1998, Hurricane Ivan in 2004, Hurricane Maria in 2017, and Hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024, among others.