Social Impact with Emma » youth at risk : A Jamaica Gleaner Blog

Building Skills for Integrity With WROC: Respect for Life and What it Brings

September 15th, 2018

“Let our own light shine.” Nikeisha Sewell Lewis, Executive Director of the Women’s Resource and Outreach Centre (WROC) always inspires confidence and a sense of belief – in self, but especially, belief in others. In this case, it is the over 60 young people WROC has worked with over the past six months under the […]

The Young Politicos: I Want Something New

March 27th, 2018

I have been thinking quite a bit about youth and politics, lately. As a former member of a youth arm in the UK (the Young Liberals) while I was at high school, I am uninspired by our young politicos. They are all lovely, bright people, but they are hardly thinking “outside the box.” In fact, […]

Hunger, Obesity and Rural Poverty: All Part of the Same Picture

February 28th, 2018

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is holding the 35th Session of its Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean in Montego Bay next week from March 5 – 8. Among its three top priorities for the meeting are hunger – and, paradoxically, obesity. Both are on the rise in the region. The other […]

Empowerment, Friendship and Black Role Models at the Winter Olympics

February 16th, 2018

Jamaicans are not normally particularly engaged with the Winter Olympics. After all, we don’t have ice and snow and are not used to negotiating it, let alone turning it into a sport. Climate change may eventually see to it that many previous sites for the Games will no longer be cold enough, even in miserable […]

Jamaica’s Funeral Culture: What’s Not to Love?

January 26th, 2018

This was the funeral of an alleged gang leader. It was particularly high profile and jumped straight to the headlines, because it took place soon after a State of Public Emergency had been declared for St. James; and this was in St. James. Tragically, one man was killed and five other participants were injured. The […]

In Need of Care and Protection: At the SOS Children’s Villages

October 15th, 2017

Towards the end of the summer, I had the opportunity to visit two SOS Children’s Villages in Jamaica: one in Stony Hill, St. Andrew and the other in Barrett Town, near Montego Bay. On both occasions, the villages were relatively quiet; most of the children were out enjoying themselves at summer camps, before the new […]

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