Tagged: Jamaica

Special athletes are Jamaicans too, just with Olympic medals!

Photograph of Lorna Bell, Executive Director of Special Olympics Jamaica

Lifelong learning

By Lorna Bell

Special athletes are Jamaicans too, just with Olympic medals!

We have just come back from another Special Olympics, not just with 33 medals but eye-opening experiences both for the special athletes and the able athletes who competed in the unified sports. Going to Abu Dhabi was a life-changer for everyone involved because people abroad understand more about disability and the treatment is… Read more →←

Disability does not disqualify our children from becoming champions

Photograph of Kadian Ingleton, Special Olympics Jamaica athlete

Lifelong learning

By Kadian Ingleton

Disability does not disqualify our children from becoming champions

Coming back to Jamaica with a Silver medal in 800 metres swimming at  the 2019 Abu Dhabi Special Olympics has touched my life, especially because four years earlier I was disqualified. At the time I was in shock, but I knew had to come back. Being disqualified had me in tears because it would have been a Gold and all of a sudden it was… Read more →←

Special Olympics athletes taught me to be a better man

Photograph of Allan Levy, Special Olympics Jamaica volleyball coach

Lifelong learning

By Allan Levy

Special Olympics athletes taught me to be a better man

It is the athletes from Special Olympics Jamaica who have made me different than the man who joined in 1996 to coach volleyball. Before that I could not deal as well with people and I was more quick to anger, but being around persons with intellectual disabilities teaches you to be calm, more respectful of differences and able to… Read more →←

Why November 19 is a historic day for Jamaican children

UNICEF Children's Town Hall in Clarendon

Safety and justice

By Emprezz Golding

Why November 19 is a historic day for Jamaican children

“Mi waan dead di man who dead mi modda.” A two-year-old boy said that. Can you imagine? Children in Jamaica today have so much on their minds to deal with. And now, for the first time in Jamaican history our children will be getting their chance to stand up and speak in Parliament, for a Special Session on Violence against… Read more →←

Being that one positive thing for youth like me 

Photograph of Joel Campbell from Fight for Peace photographed in his community of Trench Town in Kingston.

Safety and justice

By Joel Campbell

Being that one positive thing for youth like me 

Born and raised in Trench Town, I’ve seen that my community, more than anything, needs to be led on a path of peace and love, and it starts with the youths.  Whether it’s my friends or other youth in the community, I try to teach them the beauty of virtuous living. I try to enlighten them about the things they may be participating… Read more →←

I want to make these boys and girls better than me

Lifelong learning

By Dillon Anikey

I want to make these boys and girls better than me

Becoming a guidance counsellor in a Kingston primary school was a real culture shock. Coming from St. Ann, I was not used to the trauma some of my students were experiencing on a regular basis. When one of our Holy Family students, Angel, was murdered in 2017, that was the first in my tenure,  so I had nothing to compare it to. As a… Read more →←

Using my data skills in the fight against violence

Photograph of Oneil Nelson from Fight for Peace

Safety and justice

By Oneil Nelson

Using my data skills in the fight against violence

I am what they called ‘unattached youth’, and I can count on my fingers, toes and teeth the persons who have told me that I will never amount to anything. But it is because of my experiences that I have reached where I have. I joined Fight for Peace two years ago when I was 17 years-old. First, I was a part of the boxing and the book… Read more →←

My journey from gang leader to violence interrupter

Standing on the spot in Denham Town, Kingston where his friends were killed, Omarley Dennie chose not to retaliate. Instead Omarley has left behind his gang past and become a Violence Interrupter (VI) with the Peace Management Initiative (PMI).

Safety and justice

By Omarley ‘Neily Blacks’ Dennie

My journey from gang leader to violence interrupter

I’ve been involved in badness since I was 11 years old, when I had my little ‘one pop’ (single shot gun). When the Peace Management Initiative (PMI) first approached me I never took it seriously, because I was making too much money on the streets leading a gang here in Denham Town.  But just three of us are left from a crew of… Read more →←

I might have found a way to end violence in schools

Lifelong learning

By Charles Young

I might have found a way to end violence in schools

Children often grow up believing they are supposed to get beaten and that bullying and other forms of violence are part of their education. But when you talk to a primary school child, who as a consequence of this violence, starts considering suicide, then you must know the situation nuh normal. So, we need to break it down by having a… Read more →←

Breaking the cycle of family sexual abuse

Photograph of Francine Smith from Eve for Life

Health promotion

By Francine Smith

Breaking the cycle of family sexual abuse

I share some common background with our clients – girls and young women – in experiencing childhood sexual abuse. From the age of six years-old it was a cousin ten years older who abused me. Yet I was always thinking that I was playing dolly house. At Eve for Life, about 75-80 per cent of our mentees have experienced child sexual… Read more →←