At age 12, I learned a lesson about violence when I became a babysitter in my extended family. Growing up, I had already learned that the way to discipline was to beat, and so with my brothers, sister, and cousins, that was what I did. But then one day one of my brothers fought back and said, “Wait, when we get older, we are going to… Read more →←
Author: Ross Sheil
Sometimes I feel like giving up but every time I think about it, the baby comes to mind. If he is safe, then I’m all right. For me, the next step is to keep trying with my CSEC subjects. Before COVID-19, I didn’t feel like I was in prison. But it’s been hard dealing with this – as a father and as a high school student. Not being… Read more →←
Television Jamaica (TVJ) journalist Janella Precius won the UNICEF Award for Excellence in Reporting on Children’s Rights at the 2020 Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ) Awards for her reporting on the impact of school closures on children. More than one year later, with face-to-face learning still suspended except for… Read more →←
For these girls becoming pregnant can be so confusing, and lonely. At the beginning of COVID-19, I paid tribute to one of my students at her funeral. She left behind her son to the care of his great grandmother. This teen mother was only 13 years old – a loss that has been both heart-breaking but also a motivation for me as a… Read more →←
Aged 16, Damoie Byfield is recalling the day he had to run for his life, jumping into a gully just as a gunman’s bullet grazed his chest. He’s telling it so vividly, and with such a knowing smile that his mother Shian Leslie is finding it hard to hold back not tears, but actually laughter – relief that her son survived. If that… Read more →←
“Are you having a good time using your tablets?” “YES!!!” shouts a chorus of students. It’s the International day for persons with disabilities and Jamaica’s Portfolio Minister for Education, Youth and Information, Hon Fayval Williams, is hosting a virtual check-in to learn from students with special needs, some… Read more →←
When I look in the mirror each morning, I see a woman of worth, I see a woman of compassion, I see a woman of empathy, I see a woman of strength, I see a woman who has come a far way. I see a woman who can make a difference in other people’s life and in the younger ones’ lives to come. What really motivates me is hearing the way the… Read more →←
When Miguel Murray goes to work, his children worry. A porter at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), he’s proud of his supporting role ensuring that patients can be treated. But that work comes with the added risk of potential exposure to COVID-19 facing Jamaica’s healthcare workers. “To be frank helping people is… Read more →←
Read the report Education on hold: A generation of children in Jamaica, the Caribbean and Latin America are missing out on their schooling “I wanted to get my education”, says 11-year-old Joel Young as he scribbles in his notebook. At his parents’ wooden house in Little Bay, a small rural fishing community on the west coast of… Read more →←
From being the kind of student who is always on point at school, in COVID-19 I was struggling even to remember words to form paragraphs. I found myself not knowing how to do this, not knowing how to do that. Then in online class I would be getting confused feeling like they’re calling my name a little bit too much… I was just… Read more →←
