Kingston carries on family legacy
Father Ky-Mani Marley proud as son gives back to J’can youth
Published:Sunday | September 1, 2024 | 12:09 AMAshley Anguin - Sunday Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Reggae King Bob Marley spoke poignantly of the poverty he faced growing up in Trench Town in songs such as the classic No Woman, No Cry as he assures that “Everything is going to be alright”. It is the posture 16-year-old Kingston Marley, his grandson, has embraced in his interactions with Jamaica’s less fortunate children.
The Miami native, the son of reggae artiste and actor Ky-Mani Marley, has donated textbooks valued at $11 million to schoolchildren in Jamaica, which he hopes will help them achieve their goals.
Speaking with The Sunday Gleaner, the young Marley, who is an athlete, said his charity, Children for Change, through which he has been channelling his effort, is co-run with his sister Kalani Marley and was started in 2017.
Kingston’s inspiration for the charity was born out of a visit to a camp that one of his aunts was hosting in Brown’s Town in St Ann on his first visit to the island. After that visit, he was moved and decided that he wanted to make an impact on the lives of the children in Jamaica.
“When I was eight, I took my first trip to Jamaica, which was my first trip out of the country (United States),” recalled Kingston. “I remember coming here, and it was a lot to take in. I asked my mom a lot of questions and she told me that there are children here who can’t even go to school because they don’t have [the] things they need. Immediately I thought about how I would love to assist by buying their school supplies so they can go to school.”
Over the last eight years, five schools from St Ann, Clarendon and Kingston have been gifted 6,169 textbooks courtesy of the Children for Change. “Last year, our charity had a giveback getaway trip to Jamaica in which we encouraged people to vacation with a purpose. We coordinated a trip to Jamaica and went to all the hot tourist spots, exposed them to all the amazing things Jamaica has to offer, and then one day, we dedicated ourselves to completing a volunteer project. The Alva Primary and Infant School in St Ann was painted and the proceeds from the trip went towards funding textbooks,” Kingston told The Sunday Gleaner.
COMMUNITY FOOD GARDEN
“We plan to host another giveback getaway trip later this year and the community service project will be to start a community food garden in Trench Town,” he added. In addition to textbooks, in 2019, Gibraltar All-Age School, in St Ann, received tablets to assist with their computer lab. “We do back-to-school textbook distributions to the students at the schools. The principals will give us a book list and we get the books and give the children when they go back to school. One school opted for a computer lab instead of textbooks so they could have a classroom set of tablets for the students to complete online learning while at school, so we provided 30 tablets for the school,” Kingston stated.
Kingston’s father Ky-Mani, who has given back through his own initiatives, especially with the Trelawny-based Falmouth United Football Club, said he was proud of his son’s good work. “As a father, it makes me incredibly proud to see my son giving back to the country where I am from. It is a special feeling to know that he values his roots and wants to contribute to the place that shaped our family,” said Ky-Mani Marley.
In the meantime, Kingston is currently sponsoring a basketball academy, Potential, Heart, Attitude, Skill, Elite (P.H.A.S.E) 1 Academy International (P1A), which has bases in Jamaica and the United States of America. He is now in the process of trying to get a bus for the Jamaican academy. “For me, my charity is to help everybody in Jamaica, not just students but athletes like me,” said Kingston, who plays for the P1A team. “Recently my mom and I started assisting athletes. The P1A team is good and keeps growing. I help the individual athletes and assist with transportation to games in Miami.”
“The children who are afraid to play or don’t have a team to play for can play for this team and get better and hopefully accomplish their dreams,” he added.
Melayna Stephens, Kingston’s mother, said her son was born with a generous spirit. “I am overjoyed,” Stephens said. “People always tell me that they are just born with it, and I am beginning to believe that. I have four children, and he is the only one who is like him. They are all different, but he is the only one with this in him. Each year I ask him if he wants to continue because I really don’t want to force him. He always says we have to do it. I am not doing it for him, it is in him.”
Consumed by the passion to give to the less fortunate, Kingston says happy faces motivate him to do more. “When I see their smiles on the first day of school it makes me happy. Just knowing that I am giving them the chance to have the same opportunity I have been given, it is a wonderful feeling,” he said.