Tagged: Jamaica

A father’s love makes the difference in every child’s life

Safety and justice

By Dwight ‘Soapy’ Braithwaite

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 →←
Photograph of Akela Phillips delivering items to support residents during COVID-19 in her home community of 8 Miles, St Ann.

COVID-19 made me give back to the community I left

Safety and justice

By Akela Phillips

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 →←
Oshea Meaks, 11, a student at Snowdon Primary and Infant School in Manchester learning at home during COVID-19.

School closed and like that my life was changed

Lifelong learning

By Oshea Meaks

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 →←
Painting by Devaughn Burke, aged 4, from a recent contest hosted by the Araba Scott Children’s Foundation in St Thomas.

Coronavirus is the latest monster preying on children

Safety and justice

By Alicia Louise

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 →←
Teacher Taneka Mckoy Phipps writing another day's schoolwork on a community blackboard in Kingston.

Community blackboards keep children learning

Lifelong learning

By Taneka Mckoy Phipps

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 →←
Photograph of Viviene Gauntlett, a teacher at Port Maria Primary School in St Ann

Now is the time for teachers to get creative

Lifelong learning

By Viviene Gauntlett

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 →←
Photograph of Teacher Yanique Dobson with her students at Brown's Town High School in St Ann.

COVID-19 is challenging me to become a better teacher

Lifelong learning

By Yanique Dobson

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 →←
Keron King Little Bay Primary School in Westmoreland

Learning continues at this rural school, via motorbike!

Lifelong learning

By Keron King

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 →←
Photograph of Teshae Silvera, then aged 10, and Romain Virgo performing 'Dutty Man' at Reggae Sumfest in 2019.

What Dutty Man taught me as a daddy 

Health promotion

By Romain Virgo

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 →←

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