Jamaica’s Ambassador to the USA, His Excellency Main Common (Ret’d) Antony Anderson, has praised the Integrity Children’s Fund for its longstanding contributions to the schooling and improvement of at-risk youngsters in Jamaica and the USA.
“I’m happy to salute the Integrity Kids’s Fund, which, by means of its effort of giving again, has helped to the touch many lives in Jamaica in immeasurable methods,” Ambassador Anderson mentioned throughout his keynote deal with on the group’s annual gala, held June 21 on the Atlanta Marriott Marquis.
The occasion, themed “An Night of Glamour for Training,” celebrated greater than 20 years of diaspora-led influence and Jamaica’s evolving position as a frontrunner in schooling reform and innovation throughout the area.
Since its founding in 2002, the Atlanta-based nonprofit has disbursed roughly USD $1.2 million, supporting as much as 600 college students yearly and impacting greater than 8,000 lives—each in Jamaica and amongst immigrant households in metropolitan Atlanta.
Strategic partnerships and increasing influence
Based by a bunch of visionary Jamaicans led by Main (Ret’d) Karl Chambers, the Integrity Kids’s Fund has cast robust partnerships with colleges and neighborhood organizations—from the Jones City Studying Heart and Operation Restoration Christian College in Trench City to instructional packages in Trelawny and Montego Bay.
Ambassador Anderson hailed Chambers, a “proud son of Excelsior Excessive College,” for his “quiet power and ethical readability,” noting that the Fund’s attain into Clarkston, Georgia, often called the “Ellis Island of the South,” underscores how Jamaican values are uplifting communities nicely past the island’s shores.
Alignment with nationwide coverage
The Ambassador additionally highlighted the Fund’s alignment with Jamaica’s nationwide schooling priorities. He referenced Training Minister Dr. Dana Morris Dixon’s announcement that studying instruction might be reintroduced into main faculty timetables beginning in September. This shift, together with the Nationwide College Studying and Intervention Plan (NSLIP), goals to extend educational time, present psychosocial help, and combine digital instruments tailor-made to pupil wants.
Ambassador Anderson famous the potential for deeper collaboration between authorities reforms and diaspora funding, calling it a singular alternative to “place Jamaica on the forefront of instructional transformation within the Caribbean.”
A significant focus of the deal with was the combination of rising applied sciences, notably synthetic intelligence and digital studying platforms, that are already in use by means of Integrity Fund-supported packages.
“These instruments present real-time suggestions, personalised studying pathways, and entry to high quality sources no matter location,” Ambassador Anderson mentioned. “They place Jamaica to leapfrog conventional boundaries and lead in tech-enabled studying.”
A mannequin for the area
With a diaspora estimated at 2.5 million, Jamaica has a big international benefit, the Ambassador famous. The Integrity Kids’s Fund stands as a mannequin for a way diaspora engagement can drive sustainable progress, with its annual contribution of over USD $70,000 going past program funding to construct capability and foster systemic change.
From its begin supporting a single faculty, the group has advanced right into a revered schooling companion, studied by different Caribbean nations aiming to copy its success.
Ambassador Anderson closed by urging Jamaicans at residence and overseas to turn into “co-authors of our nation’s future” and to help transformative initiatives just like the Integrity Kids’s Fund.
“The Integrity Kids’s Fund proves that when Jamaicans unite round a shared objective, no problem is just too nice and no dream too bold to realize,” he mentioned. “If you put money into a baby’s schooling, you’re investing of their capability to navigate the world. You’re giving them the instruments to form their very own narratives, to problem inequity, and to raise others as they rise.”
The gala additionally featured a particular awards presentation, recognizing excellent Jamaicans in drugs, aviation, and management. Ambassador Anderson introduced awards to Jamaica’s Consul Common in Miami, Mr. Oliver Mair; Dr. Sharon Harley; and Mrs. Alrene Richards Barr, Govt Director of Worldwide Affairs at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Worldwide Airport.
In a robust present of help, patrons contributed simply over USD $35,000 on the gala, which can go towards continued instructional packages in Jamaica and Atlanta.
