As Hurricane Melissa approached Jamaica in October 2025, Mona-Lisa was busy with a desperate, unusual task. To save her family’s only source of income, she and her three children carried 1,200 chickens, batch by batch, from the coop into their living room. They shoved the furniture aside to make room for the flock. As Melissa roared outside, the night was a blur of noise and fear.

When the storm subsided, her chickens were safe, mostly. In the days that followed, the flock dwindled to 840. She faced a setback, but her business did not die.

This story captures something particular about the Caribbean: when resources are thin and life’s storms approach, people find a way. For the five years I have spent working in the region, I saw governments doing the same thing.