My father died a week ago. He wasn’t always a part of my life and when we reasoned, a lot of times he would say, ‘Listen I wasn’t the father I was supposed to be at your age,’ but at least I made him proud in showing the difference a father can make for his children. I was angry at him growing up, especially when I would be sent… Read more →←
COVID-19 has taught me that if we have some amount of courage, and if we are kind to others, then we will be able to see the world not as it is, but as what the world can be. I left my community of 8 Miles, St. Ann at the age of 15 to go into state care, and my relationship with people there and my family was something I wanted to… Read more →←
U-Report recently polled young Jamaicans on their views about fears of a potential increase in domestic abuse due to stay-at-home conditions during COVID-19, and to ask their advice to inform a project for the Spotlight Initiative – a partnership between the United Nations, the European Union and the Government of Jamaica to reduce… Read more →←
March 12, 2020 will be a day I will never forget. When our principal told us that the government announced that there would be a closure for all schools for 14 days we were sad to leave our friends, but we were happy to be going home. I also thought 14 days was pretty short. The next day, I woke up at 6am, just like I always do because I… Read more →←
COVID-19 is an uncomfortable but opportune moment for us to confront serious and longstanding social issues in Jamaica, like violence against women and children. At Araba Scott Children’s Foundation we’ve been adapting our usual programme in St. Thomas, to help those in quarantine until we are able to gather properly again. Between… Read more →←
School may be closed but I still leave the house at 6 am every day for work at Union Gardens Infant School. In the community where the school is situated I asked to take over a community blackboard and then painted another where I write each day’s schoolwork – on one for the four-year-olds, and the other for the five-year-olds. I… Read more →←
The wise man Solomon tells us that there is a time and a season for everything under the sun. Little did we know that in a split second it would be the time for online teaching and learning. Should we throw up our arms in despair? No, now is the time for creativity and bonding outside the classroom with our students and parents –… Read more →←
COVID-19 has taken so much adjustment as a teacher because I love the job and being with my children and my co-workers. Trust me when I say that this has been no holiday. Many of my students at Brown’s Town High School live in deep rural areas and don’t have constant internet access. What I do is find samples of work and send a… Read more →←
At Little Bay Primary School in Westmoreland, where I am Principal, we have a lot of communities that are far off main roads and cannot be reached by normal transport. Some of our students may not always have internet access, and with school being closed they are even more disadvantaged. Now is the time to think of different ways to get… Read more →←
Dutty Man has made me start to understand the pain of girls who have been sexually abused, not just in Jamaica but throughout the Caribbean. We get a lot of feedback at shows, and on social media, and people go into details; and not just to say I was abused – but exactly what happened to them. To me it’s like a shock, knowing that… Read more →←