Valdeen Shears-Neptune
They had lost everything. What had probably taken years of hard work, sweat and tears to amass, had all been lost within hours in a raging fire.The children were in tears as they faced the television camera. Their parents looked beaten, dazed. To Emelia Permanand and her family this was gut-wrenching, even though they were not the victims.
They were in fact in the comfort of their living room looking on at yet another story of a family's loss of their home in the aftermath of a fire, as scenes from the incident flashed across their television screen during the evening news.
The year was 2006 and Permanand knew from back then that she had to get the message clear: "Protect your home, it's one of your real, tangible assets."
It drove the Permanands to help that family through donations, but they also felt they had to do more.The feelings that emerged from watching that news flash stirred a movement that ten years later still stands strong.
The duo, once led by the family patriarch, Ralph Jeewan Permanand, is the authorised local agent for the Insurance Company of The West Indies Ltd (ICWI) out of Jamaica.
"For us it is not just about business. It's about educating, informing and helping others to see the importance of understanding why. It's simple, you know, the why is answered every time you turn on your television screen and see another family looking lost and their only redress is to wait for the kind-heartedness of well-wishers, family, friends, the Government.
"Then there's that other why. Why not see your home as enough of an asset to protect it and secure a safety net in the event of a disaster, whether natural or man-made," said mom Mervina, the other half of the powerful mother/daughter insurance team.
To this day, Permanand said her father's words on that day rings in her ears.
"Ten to one the family house was not insured because they would think they did not need home insurance," he had stated then, shaking his head in sympathy.
It was a sympathy laced with the knowledge that families/citizens are not cultured into thinking that this is necessary.The mindset, noted Mervina, is based on ensuring that one has a fully-comprehensive covered vehicle and for business people, the same for their business and property.
The home, interjected Permanand, is usually an afterthought.For the Permanands, nothing about family is ever an afterthought.Stuck on the ideal that "the family comes first," Permanand's father saw the drive in her from as early as her teenage years.
While her elder sister, Emily, was stuck in a book or other academic pursuits, he started training her so he could pass on the baton.
"My dad was an ideal male figure and father in my family; he always kept the family together and grounded. Through thick and thin I always relied on my dad in every aspect of my life. He handed down to me his passion for this insurance business and taught me all aspects of business itself.
Every step and decision I make as of today in this industry comes from lessons taught by my father," she stated passionately.His passing, she recalled, came almost exactly as he finished training her.
To this day, just the thought of including a photo of him as part of their story evokes too much emotions. It would be easier, Permanand said, to read about his impact in their lives and livelihoods than to see his photo again. To her, his photos are intimate reminders, filled with memories, laughter and a tinge of sorrow. They pull them out every so often to remind them what their family name stands for and to find strength in their weakest of moments.
It is this resolve that has kept the Permanands going.
Ten years ago, Permanand, her mom and sister dusted their grief off and decided to carry on Ralph's legacy through their work.Permanand, though, was no newcomer to the insurance industry, as she had more than 35 years in this field.
To the dynamic duo, the foundation set by Ralph prepared them for anything that comes their way.
And because their ideal has always been about family, one of the main focus has been the bundling of coverage that goes from generation to generation. Even perennial issues such as flooding, which recently reared its devastating head, is and can be addressed.
Jamaica-born Christian Watt, underwriting and business development manager of ICWI, said while it may be more of a risk, no matter what, "Your home is your home, even if the environment it was built in may not always be ideal. "For Irma of D'Abadie, a single mother of four, this information came a little too late.
"We lived in Central for years and every year I cried, lost a lot of home appliances to flooding and just decided one day we had enough. I sold my family home, which had been passed on to me through myparents, found a cheap old house on the market up here and relocated. It was both a tough and easy decision.
I was an only child so I didn't require the permission or approval of other siblings or relatives, but it was tough because it meant giving up where I had spent my childhood. It took a while for us to settle though, cause it meant transferring of schools for my children, me having to adjust our schedule for work, school, church, recreation, everything," she recalled.
The Permanands are bent on changing stories like Irma's.
"We would love to one day hear a news story with a difference, of a family stating they will be OK. That they had lost things in the fire, flood, whatever the disaster was, but that they knew they had something tangible coming, because they had put things in place for any such event.
Every asset is worth protecting because we never know the day we can lose it all. We long for that day that would affirm that what we are fostering is not just about business, but about enriching lives, offering protection from generation to generation and helping families be less victims and more of survivors," stated Permanand passionately.
Sad stories still pull on their heart strings and it's because of this, the duo takes their corporate social responsibility very seriously.From making themselves and their finances available to their church, Mt Carmel RC in Carapichaima, to answering the cry of a family whose eight-year-old child needed surgery abroad.
Hesitation, said Permanand, was not an option, when they saw a call for help in an email from a student at CTS College in early March.Never one to do things halfway, the Permanands are determined to keep updates on the child and assist in her well-being for years to come.
It is this sense of determination and perseverance that has seen them weather rough seas and leave their mark in an industry that at one time was predominantly headed by their male counterparts.