Greetings,

My name is Elizabeth Goffe & I am the founder of a community centre called TrueSelf Centre, located in Kingston, Jamaica. Our centre has been a community hub primarily focused on wellness offerings for a little more than a decade.

In the past eight months since Hurricane Melissa hit our island, we have been involved in a number of relief efforts in collaboration with other organizations, communities, families, shelters & schools in different parishes where the most damage occurred (St. Elizabeth, Westmoreland, Trelawny, St. James & Hanover).

These efforts have included the coordination of relief trips where volunteers come together to offer assistance with hands-on tasks such as care package delivery, debris-clearing, census-taking, community workshops, children’s activities, wellness sessions, and special holiday gatherings.

One of the communities we have been especially focused on is the Unity Primary & Infant School in Trelawny.

I was already working with this community for a few years before the hurricane, and our relationship has only strengthened in the past several months since Melissa. We have made efforts to offer support with a variety of issues in the weeks and months after the hurricane, including:

– Damaged buildings and infrastructure
– Loss of personal belongings & necessities (including school books & supplies, clothing, shoes, etc)
– Disrupted water supply
– Loss of electricity
– Food insecurity
– Increased stress levels amongst adults & children
– Loss of instructional time during the school year

We recognize that the Unity Primary & Infant School would benefit tremendously from some specialized support in strengthening the overall literacy rates of the students. With this in mind, we will be running a 3-week sponsored summer program at the school this July, with special emphasis on strengthening literacy skills across all grade levels. We will also incorporate numeracy, writing, arts and crafts, music, yoga, mindfulness, skateboarding, stilt-walking, and more.

This program is intended to be a collaborative project facilitated both by guest teachers and Unity teachers. It is our intention to deepen our focus, consistency and commitment in the work we have been doing at the school, so that we can make long-lasting improvements for the entire community – students, teachers, parents and school staff alike.

Our summer program will run from July 13th – 31st in Trelawny. As we get closer to the start date, we are in the process of finalizing our budget and ensuring that we have enough funds to cover all the necessary costs for this summer program to run as smoothly and efficiently as possible, including:

– Compensation for educators and facilitators leading the summer sessions.
– Compensation for canteen staff and janitor handling meals and keeping the space clean.
– Transportation for educators and facilitators travelling from other parishes.
– Accommodations for educators and facilitators traveling from other parishes.
– Meals for all students, teachers, facilitators and staff.
– Printed materials & school supplies for the program.
– Books, toys, games for the children.

We are grateful to have received partial funding from the Beckley Retreats community, whose support has allowed us to dream big & start planning a top-quality professional summer program led by several experienced educators and facilitators.

We still need additional funding to bring our vision to completion. We welcome supporters from our TrueSelf community and beyond to contribute if you are able to. No amount is too small. We give thanks for all that you are able to offer in support of this project.