Over $11M In Grants and Scholarships Awarded Under WCJF A-Stream Programme

The Women’s Centre of Jamaica Foundation (WCJF) has, to date, awarded bursaries and scholarships totalling approximately $11.5 million under the Advancing Secondary, Tertiary Remedial Education for Adolescent Mothers (A-STREAM) Programme since its introduction in 2018.

The programme aims to ensure that adolescent mothers who have been reintegrated into the formal school system have the necessary financial and psychosocial support.

Director of Field Operations at the WCJF, Beverley Martin-Berry, says donations from various partners have enabled the entity to provide its services to more than 200 young women over the last six years.

“Our very first partner would have been the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. They were one of the first partners to come on when we launched in 2018,” she informed.

Additionally, Mrs. Martin-Berry said support has come from the Bureau of Gender Affairs and American Friends of Jamaica, “along with our corporate Jamaica business sector who have also made donations”.

She added that individuals also make direct donations to the programme at the Foundation.

The WCJF also held its annual Charity Ball on May 18 to raise funds for the A-STREAM programme.

Mrs. Martin-Berry noted that the event was a resounding success, generating significant support from corporate Jamaica and friends of the Foundation.

“It was one of the events of 2024. The Most Hon. Prime Minister was our guest speaker and we had over 350 in the room at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel. That was, in itself, a success for us because we were able to get our partners and friends in the room for them to see what we are doing where A-STREAM is concerned and, as well, to just highlight some of the partners who would have been contributing to, not just the A-STREAM but the work of the Foundation,” she said.

Mrs. Martin-Berry praises the programme’s supporters and donors for their commitment to the continued education of the adolescent mothers being aided by the Foundation.

“Looking at it today, and recognising that we would have been able to get persons pouring into this initiative a total of approximately $11.5 million towards the growth [of the beneficiaries’] education, that is tremendous. That is saying a whole lot to what Jamaica and Jamaicans, and the Jamaican business sector and the individuals have made [in] contribution to A-STREAM,” she said.