The already hard lives of about 30 children, living at the Martha's House Children's Home on North Street, Kingston, was made even harder on Monday night when fire destroyed the only place they called home.

Luckily, there were no tragedies because of the quick response of neighbours and those in the community.

Although all the lives were spared, the impact of the fire is great. These children, many of whom have no family support, have been left without a home. We can only hope that the authorities will recognise the kind of impact this incident can have on them and move quickly to restore some kind of hope and happiness to their lives.

Even though we expect the authorities to help in whatever way they can, the contributions of ordinary citizens would also go a long way in helping with the recovery process. Instead of sitting and waiting on those in power to act, we can do our part in helping these little ones. We are sure that most of them lost clothes and other personal items in the fire, so a first step would be to try and restore the lost and damaged items.

We hope the children are in a safe environment now and we hope they are being provided with the counselling that they no doubt will need.