Jamaica — Hurricane Melissa Relief (2024–Present)
Scott Cathcart and Grace Marr — Jamaica Respect Foundation
Following Hurricane Melissa, Western Jamaica faces the most severe humanitarian crisis in its modern history — widespread homelessness, shortages of food and clean water, extended power outages, and a near-total collapse of communications across the Western Parishes of St. Elizabeth, St. James, Hanover, and Westmoreland. The rural citizens deep in the hills are often the hardest hit, and the most easily overlooked.
In Jamaica, small board houses and concrete block homes provide shelter for the day laborers and small farmers who comprise the majority of rural Jamaicans. For those who can still find work after the hurricane, wages of J$4,000–5,000 per day (US $25–31) are barely sufficient to provide food for their families, let alone pay for building materials to repair their homes.
The Jamaica Respect Foundation (JRF) was co-founded by Grace Marr and Scott Cathcart, building on an earlier pilot program started in 2023 in which they worked with the Chief of the Trelawny-Flagstaff Maroons and the Salz family to connect Vaughansfield Primary School — a rural school deep in the mountains of Cockpit Country — to the world via Starlink, and to teenage tutors at Deerfield Academy. That pilot demonstrated how connectivity can build dignity and expand opportunity for underprivileged schoolchildren. Following Hurricane Melissa, the Foundation has listened to the community’s most urgent need: building materials to repair and rebuild their homes. Schools and police stations have been damaged as well, including Vaughansfield Primary itself.
Relief Voucher Program
JRF is working with local hardware stores to provide those most urgently in need with free building materials vouchers ranging from J$25,000 (US $156) to J$100,000 (US $625) per family. Even a few pieces of zinc sheathing, plywood, and nails can make the difference between exposure to the elements and having shelter. Vouchers are issued based on need for families, schools, and police stations, and are fulfilled through trusted local hardware partners such as Speedy Way Hardware in Orange Bay, Hanover.
To ensure security, transparency, and dignity, JRF has built a QR code-based voucher verification system. Each recipient receives a uniquely numbered voucher with a QR code that vendors scan to verify authenticity, confirm the approved amount, and log the materials receipt — creating a transparent, auditable record of every transaction.
Examples of materials supported: Roofing zinc · Nails, screws & hurricane straps · Plywood & board · Cement & blocks · Windows & louvres · Doors · Tarps & sealants
Haiti — Earthquake Relief (2010)
Scott Cathcart and Shakira — Haiti Relief, Port-au-Prince, 2010
After the catastrophic earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010, Scott Cathcart and his business partners traveled to Port-au-Prince within weeks. In partnership with Maersk and drawing on his experience as a former board member of the global commercial modular building industry trade association, Cathcart was positioned to bring critical replacement facilities and infrastructure to the country on a rapid-deployment basis.
After visiting the J/P HRO Petionville refugee camp outside Port-au-Prince with Shakira, and learning about her humanitarian initiatives for the education of impoverished children through the Barefoot Foundation, Cathcart and his partners committed to building a new modular school at their own expense for 250 Haitian students. The facility was fully constructed at a modular building plant in Texas. Regrettably, it was never delivered — land title records for most government-owned parcels had been buried in the earthquake, making site assignment impossible to resolve.
Baghdad — Reconstruction (2009)
In 2009, Scott Cathcart was deployed to Baghdad as an invited civilian guest of the Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO) under Undersecretary of Defense Paul Brinkley. Operating with full military support, rescue authorization, and a Private Security Detail throughout missions into the Red Zone, Cathcart delivered a reconstruction framework presentation to the Iraqi Deputy Minister of Construction and Housing at his Ministry — with simultaneous Farsi translation. The work was part of a broader effort to identify reconstruction and infrastructure opportunities in post-conflict Iraq.
Full details of Cathcart’s force protection and reconstruction work are documented at scottcathcart.com/disaster-relief-reconstruction and scottcathcart.com/force-protection.
For charitable and philanthropic inquiries, contact Cathcart here.
To view Cathcart’s professional work as a frontier founder and operator, visit scottcathcart.com.