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...

Eighty, mostly female-headed households in Salt Spring in St. James have been equipped to successfully plant food crops for their subsistence and to develop a sustainable livelihood through value-added production. Under the Climate Smart Agriculture Project, being undertaken by 360 Recycle, the participants have benefited from agriculture training, and planting materials and containers (planter boxes) made from recycled plastic bottles....

When Eustas “Piggy” Lindsay lost his popular jerk centre to fire in 2019 little did he know that James Bond would come to the rescue. Mr. Lindsay’s Piggy’s Jerk Centre, located along the picturesque Foreshore Road along the Port Antonio coastline, was a popular eating spot for British actor Daniel Craig, who plays Bond, and other cast and crew members...

Health coach, Natalie Murray, is a strong believer in the adage that nothing happens before its time. “I also believe that everything happens exactly the way it is supposed to when you trust and believe,” she tells JIS News. The Director of the recently opened Life Store Wellness Centre Boutique on Constant Spring Road, says that “the third time was...

The Government of Jamaica is making significant strides in transforming the public sector into a more efficient and effective organisation. The most recent step in this regard is commencement of the pilot for the introduction of Shared Corporate Services (SCS) with two services – Internal Audit and Human Resource Management in February and March 2021, respectively. Implementation of SCS, which...

The Pringle Home for Girls, in Carron Hall, St. Mary, is to get a $3-million Resource Centre, the initiative of author Mary White, a native of the community. Work has started to revamp the library at the Home, and upgrade it into a resource centre for the 21 females who reside there, and the wider community. The project, financed by...