Andrea Pogue was the organizer in 2021 but the idea went back to 2019. She grew up in Jamaica
From Andrea -“Jamaica – What could I do to make a difference for a lot more people in one shot? Lightbulb went off; my primary school where I started my education journey was always on my list to give back to and to try to help. As I planned my 2019 visit to Jamaica, I made an appointment with the principal Annette Steele. The visit was amazing; after the formalities, we talked about various needs for the school, painting, and a new fence, computers for the kids, uniforms, and the most everyday basic tools, school supplies. At that moment I promised that I would get every kid in that school a backpack with supplies; Annette thought I was crazy, my faith told me otherwise. I left the meeting with a new friend, more motivated, and a new mission, determined to make an impact on some kids’ lives.”
“Our goal at this time was to get the backpacks to Jamaica and Annette, and her staff would handle the distribution. We collected over three hundred and fifty backpacks, along with notebooks, pencils, pens, sharpeners, erasers, and rulers, in addition to the generous online donation of $3000.00,
“If you help the poor, you are contributing to the Lord, and he will repay you.” Proverbs 19: vs 17. The presentation from the trip – 50 slides
B 2023 Trip
In 2023 we are refreshing the supplies as well as moving to supply additional items, like computers. This year only Andrea, Ken and Laura will be going to deliver the supplies.
The Challenge
Victoria Primary School, formerly Victoria All-Age is located in North West St. Catherine about two (2) miles from the major town of Linstead in the farming community of Victoria. Victoria, along with the adjoining community of Banbury, where most of the children are from, has a populace of over 20,000.
Approximately 10 % of the adult population is dependent on farming for a living, some of the produce from this activity is sold at the Linstead Market and the remainder kept for domestic use. Another 30% depends on vending as their main means of livelihood, 40% is employed while the remaining 20% is unemployed.
The current parent population is very young with the average age being about 25 years. Most of them have attained secondary level of education but have not moved on to tertiary learning but instead have acquired a skill in order to become employable.
Even before the mission began, we hosted Annette Steele, principal of Victoria Primary School who enjoyed a full day at St. Peter’s on Sun, Aug. 13. She addressed the church at announcements about our joint mission to help the students in her elementary school get ready for school in Sept, both in 2021 and 2023. She explained how much it meant to the students and her community.
After the service, she enjoyed St. Peter’s hospitality at a luncheon and met our parishioners and guests.
Many of the donations for the students came from Amazon. These donations included 3,000+ items including drawstring backpacks, sharpeners, pencils, pens, toothpaste, toothbrushes, erasers, crayons, pencil cases, rulers, Also 6 tablets were contributed. Finally, St Peter’s was able to donate seven used computers to the school, along with keyboards and monitors to use with each computer. We collected $2,355 at the end of June for the computers and remaining school supplies
The group of 3 on the mission team distributed our donations in Jamaica on Aug. 26
We not only brought the usual school supplies but added 6 tablets. Separately, 7 used computers were donated to a school that had never had a computer.
There were different ways of distributing the items. There were contests for tablets and food baskets won by answering questions. Certificates given out based on merit overall and in areas like math. A number of students won $1,000 Jamaican dollars for math competency. Teachers were not forgotten – 2 footballs were given out to the coach!