Learning & Technology Center for Youth in Jamaica

We are happy to report that in July 2015, the Caribbean Education Foundation (CEF) finally secured the space in downtown Kingston that we wanted for the Learning Center!  In August, we had our first Day of Service - Clean Up Day!  Several volunteers came to downtown Kingston and assisted our local team.  Our painter extraordinaire, Paul, did an excellent job transforming the rooms!  Thank you to all our volunteers for your assistance with cleaning up the space!  We are grateful for their time and efforts to help make the space welcoming to our disadvantaged children.  This month, we are completing the fix up process and begin to transform the space with necessary items for the Center.  We will update you on our progress and official opening date! 

In the meantime, our CEO, Nikiki Bogle, Esq. has been in Kingston overseeing the final process at the Center space; and attending high school graduations for 6 of our 20 students on CEF Scholarships.  The six high school graduates have been funded by CEF for the past five years to gain meaningful access to education.  From 2010-2015, CEF Scholarships paid their school fees, text books, school supplies, lunch and transportation.  We cannot believe that they graduated this year - - 5 years went by very quickly. They were 11 and 12 years old when we got them into our Scholarship Program and now they are young adults at 16 and17 years old!

In attending the first high school graduations with our team, one alarming fact came from a Valedictorian Speech about the lack of access to technology at a very prestigious public high school in Jamaica.  In her speech, the Valedictorian described how it was a huge challenge to get a computer to use in the lab. In addition, she often was hungry at school, because there were countless times that she had to use her lunch money to pay for printing of homework assignments in the school’s computer lab!  Their computer lab at the school did not have free printing of homework assignments for students, although a technology fee is included in the paid school fee!  Now, if that is one of the wealthy public schools, one can only imagine what is happening at the regular schools. Our CEF Learning & Technology Center will have sufficient computers and free printing for scholars' homework, so children don't have to go hungry at school.

MEET THE GRADUTE: AMOY

We would like to say BIG CONGRATULATIONS to Caribbean Education Foundation Scholarship Recipient, Amoy, who graduated from Ardenne High School in Kingston, Jamaica in 2015! We are so PROUD of her accomplishment!

In 2010, at 11 years old, Amoy was awarded our CEF Paul Bogle Scholarship based on high academics and financial need, to attend public high school, along with 5 other children. She graduated from Portsmouth Primary School. Each year for the past 5 years, CEF has renewed Amoy’s Scholarship, so she could continue to attend high school. Amoy is an impressive young lady, now at 16 years old!

Despite very challenging economic and family circumstances, Amoy has held steadfast in focus to do her best! Amoy would like to pursue medicine at University.  In her Scholarship Application Essay in 2010, Amoy said she wanted to be a Surgeon. We are surprised that 5 years later, she has the same plan. Since Amoy received the 5th Highest CSEC Score in English Literature in all of Ardenne High School, we hope she also considers professions such as Law, Professor of Literature, Public Relations, etc. Whichever profession she pursues, we wish Amoy the very best! The sky is the limit! We hope that Amoy keeps focus and becomes a positive force in her community, Jamaica and the world. CEF will continue to renew Amoy’s Scholarship for the next 2 years of Sixth Form, as long as we have funding to do so.

We would like say a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone, particularly our hundreds of Global Giving donors, who have contributed funds to the Caribbean Education Foundation (CEF)!  A “Special Thank You” to Boston J.U.M.P. charity, which has helped to sponsor Amoy’s CEF Scholarship in the past. We truly appreciate your support! Our CEF Scholars such as Amoy graduating from High School is the reward for your kindness, generosity and love. Please let us continue to make each CEF Scholar have meaningful access to education in Jamaica!

Heartfelt Thank You to all you Global Giving donors who have helped to bring the CEF Learning & Technology to life!  We will now be able provide much-needed assistance to needy children on the second phase of our education project. 

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A Space Journey in Jamaica

Great news! We found Space! We are breathing a sigh of relief.  Our Scholarship Recipients continue to thrive in high school and are excited about the Learning Center.

Sometimes it pays to take a second look and re-evaluate the purpose. For the past year, our CEF team has been trying to find a good space in the right location that will work well for the Learning & Technology Center in Kingston, Jamaica.

Because our Scholarship Recipients attend different high schools at various locations throughout Kingston and St. Andrew, we tried to find a space that was more central so that our students would converge in the middle at our Learning Center when their schools let out. It would have been much easier to locate space in a particular inner-city neighborhood, but such a location would have denied easy access to most of our students, and there were major security concerns.  Therefore, we concluded that the centrally located areas of Half-Way Tree or Cross Roads would work best. Unfortunately, the properties we viewed in those central locations were very expensive and unaffordable for us. And the properties that were reasonably priced for our charity to afford were broom closets!

Frustrated, we started to look outside of the central locations. One of the spaces we viewed is located in downtown Kingston. Physically, the building with some improvements would work well for the Center and it was spacious and in a charitable price range. However, we did not envision going all the way to downtown Kingston, nor did we want to. We thought it wasn’t very central and we had some security concerns, and it is surrounded by depressed communities.

Several months later, after viewing additional spaces in exhaustion, we re-visited the downtown Kingston building. One of the things we noticed is that although it is downtown, it would be easily accessible to most of our students, because many buses go there. Importantly, there are several other schools around that area, where those students are also in desperate need of access to technology, not only our scholarship recipients. It was settled. We walked in the space a few days ago, and knew we had found our new Center home!

By creating the Learning & Technology Center downtown Kingston, CEF will now reach an additional population of disadvantaged children who really need this support! We are excited!  As our team work on the new space, we will be sending you photos and updates on the progress.

March 18^th is 30% Bonus Day on Global Giving!

GlobalGiving's first matching opportunity of 2015 is Wednesday, March 18th! They are offering a 30% match on all donations up to $1,000 per donor per project, while funds remain. There is $60,000 available in matching and matching begins at 9:00 EDT and lasts until funds run out or 23:59:59 EDT.  There is also $2,000 in bonus prizes available!

Please help us and donate to CEF Learning & Technology Center on March 18^th, so that we can raise needed funds through this great matching opportunity! Please donate early, as the matching funds go quickly and we need all the help we can get to make our Learning & Technology Center an excellent one.

Thank you for your continued support!  You are making the education of brilliant poor children possible.