As the Jamaica Climate Change Youth Council (JCCYC) approaches its fourth anniversary, the organisation is looking to inspire the next generation of young people to become involved in environmental advocacy. The JCCYC is the youth affiliate of the Jamaica Climate Change Advisory Board. In an interview with JIS News, JCCYC Director, Eleanor Terrelonge, says since the group was launched in...

“I don’t want to catch that awful thing,” 79-year old Lorna Rowe tells JIS News before entering the National Arena on Saturday (April 3) to receive her first dose of the AstraZeneca coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine. She was among more than 1,000 elderly persons, who came out to be inoculated against the deadly virus during the Ministry of Health and Wellness’...

Business sector leaders say the E-Commerce National Delivery System (ENDS) can potentially assist in revolutionising economic activity in Jamaica, by facilitating the transition of more informal operators into the formal sector. ENDS is a partnership between the Government and the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ). It allows the quick service industry and delivery operators registered on the web-based platform...

Partners in the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) US$15 million Positive Pathways initiative, have pledged to ensure that it works for the improvement of communities, and the building of stronger families. The programme will run for five years across five parishes and seeks to complement existing initiatives to prevent youth involvement in crime and violence, by building community,...

The Green Block Foundation, established by three Jamaicans living in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States (US), is providing much-needed support to schools in the parishes of Portland and St. Thomas where its founders grew up. Several institutions located in communities across the two parishes have received educational supplies and food products from the Foundation to enable them to navigate...

More than 40,000 young persons have been enrolled through the Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment (HOPE) Programme since it was launched in May 2017. HOPE is a youth engagement initiative that targets persons aged 18 to 24 who are not employed or enrolled in a school or training programme. The HOPE programme is intended to provide an avenue for the...

Gewana Reid’s goal as a teenager was to acquire a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration that would launch her career. Although the 25-year-old inner-city entrepreneur passed Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) subjects, which qualified her to begin the programme at the University of Technology some years ago, that dream was short-lived. “I started university, but I had to drop out....

The Yallahs High School in St. Thomas is benefiting from the ‘No Male Left Behind’ project being spearheaded by the Desnoes & Geddes Foundation. Under the initiative, tablets have been donated to male students and teachers at the institution, with mentoring support for the boys. The project aims to cater to the needs of at-risk boys at high schools across...

When it was announced that fisherfolk and farmers registered with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries will soon be able to benefit from health and life insurance coverage, no one was happier than Kenneth Hanse. The 61-year-old Portland native, who has been fishing since age 10, tells JIS News that he is grateful to Portfolio Minister, Hon. Floyd Green, for...