Young leaders making an impact across the nation

Each year, Jamaica celebrates National Youth Month in November. This year, the theme for the month is ‘RETHINK Youth: Resilient through Entrepreneurship, Training, Hope, Innovation, Networking and Knowledge’. To celebrate National Youth Month 2020, The Sunday Gleaner will be doing a Rethink Youth series which features young people who are making their mark in communities across Jamaica.

Meet a few of Jamaica’s young community builders.

ROMARIO FRANCIS

St Ann North Eastern

Education is a passion for National Youth Parliament Middlesex coordinator, Romario Francis. When he learned that the Mansfield Basic School was in need of infrastructure development and beautification, Romario gladly organised several volunteers to provide assistance.

Principal Lorna Morrison explained that a prominent charity organisation had initially agreed to rebuild and renovate the school. However, their focus shifted to assisting other institutions because of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, Romario and his team undertook the project and built new partitions for the sick bay and bathroom, installed a new kitchen countertop and cleaned the school for the new academic year.

ASHAUNI GRANVILLE AND TEVIN GIBBONS

St Andrew West Rural

Being committed to service is a quality that youth leaders Ashauni Granville and Tevin Gibbons both share. Acting on an identified need in the community, they organised and executed a successful drive to collect non-perishable items to donate to the SOS Children’s Village in Stony Hill.

After experiencing some early difficulty in collecting supplies, Ashauni leveraged his social network at the Excelsior Community College, which overwhelmingly supported this initiative. Despite the slow start to the project, they successfully delivered the donations on October 17.

MORGANNE KELLIER

St James North Western

Morganne Kellier has long displayed a heart of compassion. That is why she undertook a project aimed at feeding some of the most vulnerable in her community. Dubbed the ‘Feeding For Social Change Initiative’, Morganne partnered with the Street People Liberation Foundation to execute the project on October 18 at the Refuge of Hope Shelter in Albion.

Despite being unable to interact with the members of the home due to COVID-19 restrictions, residents were able to receive food packages in addition to other donations. It is even more commendable that Morganne was able to expand the programme and go into the streets of Montego Bay to give away over 100 food packages.

ANDRE BARNABY

Kingston Central

Protecting the environment and providing encouragement to his community was a priority for Andre Barnaby. Therefore, he undertook a Spiritual Outreach Walk, which entailed visiting residents along the Windward Road thoroughfare, and offering prayer and words of encouragement during this difficult time.

His second project was the installation of several hand sanitiser dispensers at the Windward Road Primary School, which would assist with the anticipated reopening of the institution.

Noting that proper sanitation is essential for community development, Andre also organised the East Kingston Bin Project, where he collected and decorated several metallic drums and placed them along Windward Road in order to assist with the disposal of garbage and discourage littering.

ARIANE ROXBURGH AND YANIQUE MENDEZ

St Catherine North Western and St Ann South Eastern

Yanique Mendez and Ariane Roxburgh have always demonstrated an interest in championing social issues, like raising awareness of mental health or advocating for holistic healthcare for women. Using social media platforms, these young ladies hosted an online discussion on suicide prevention in September, which featured professionals like clinical psychologist Verol Billett.

Partnering with several stakeholders, such as the iBloom Foundation and Operation Help the People, their next project focused on rethinking the taboo topic of period poverty in Jamaica. Period poverty is the inadequate access to menstruation hygiene items, which affects the most vulnerable women and girls in society. Launching the iBloom Period Poverty Awareness Campaign, Yanique and Ariane organised sessions discussing period poverty with young men and women.

For further information on how to donate sanitary products, you can message them on Instagram @ibloom.foundation.

editorial@gleanerjm.com