O’Connor Basil Dawkins’ illustrious career in theatre has made him one of the industry’s greats. His exploits will, this year, see him being awarded the Order of Distinction in the rank of Officer (OD) for his stellar contribution to the creative industry, in particular theatre. “I am elated. I feel like I am collecting it on behalf of so many...

If the image of farmers on bended knees, manually tending to crops, comes to mind when thinking about the Canadian seasonal agricultural workers programme, then it might come as a surprise that the reality is it is largely mechanically driven. For the most part, Jamaican workers on the farms which JIS News has so far visited while accompanying a team...

Among the thousands of Jamaicans, who leave the island every year for Canada to participate in the Seasonal Agricultural Workers’ Programme, is a large group of women, who are holding their own alongside their male counterparts. They are employed on properties, such as a 2,500-acre apple farm in the Simcoe, Ontario area, where they are picking and packing the fruit....

Jamaican-born Sandra Samuels, the first black person to become Mayor of Wolverhampton, in the United Kingdom (UK), is proudly carrying the flag of her native country. Having served in the medical field as a nurse for 40 years, Councillor Samuels saw, first-hand, the gap in political representation for minorities and entered the political arena in 1998 and was elected a...

Jamaica has added its first North African company to the growing Global Digital Services Sector, which currently has more than 70 firms. The island is also the first Caribbean country to be selected to carry out business processing, information technology (IT), innovative consulting, and multichannel CX operations for global outsourcing giant, Intelcia, located in Morocco. Intelcia is a North Africa-based...

Nothing could stop former St. James High School student Abigayle McGrowder from acing her external examinations this year. Not even the financial constraints that made it difficult for her parents to afford to purchase a new pair of shoes for her to wear to school. With her mother laid off because of the COVID-19 pandemic and her stepfather’s salary slashed,...

Sixty-seven-year-old Devon Vassel fell in love with the teaching profession at the age of 17, while working as a pretrained teacher at the Bull Savannah All-Age School in St. Elizabeth, on leaving high school in 1972. “As my life went on teaching at Bull Savannah, I just fell in love with teaching, and I saw where students were gravitating towards...

Determination, proper time management, organisation and motivation were the cornerstones on which Joshell Allen of New Market in St. Elizabeth achieved major successes in her secondary-level external examinations. The 19-year-old graduate of Hampton School in Malvern, St. Elizabeth, gained a combined 10 subjects in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations in 2019 and 2020, while in Grades 10 and...

Retired educator, Carmen Louise Samuels, believes that faithful classroom teachers in Jamaica are capable of influencing the country’s children for good. Miss Samuels was among 80 educators who were awarded with the Prime Minister’s Medal of Appreciation for the 2021 and 2022 cohorts, at a ceremony held at Jamaica House on September 8. “Teachers can make the difference that Jamaica...