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Director General in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Mr. Vivian Brown, says that social enterprises in Jamaica are now becoming critical agents for growth and development.

Social enterprises are businesses with primarily social objectives, and whose surpluses are reinvested in their business or the community. Their primary mission is to solve social, economic or environmental problems at community or national level through effective and ethical business practices. They have the dual responsibility of creating social value and ensuring financial viability.

According to the Director General, the social enterprise model has shown particular strength in addressing issues related to inclusion of the marginalized such as youth, rural women and persons with disabilities.

Mr. Brown was addressing the opening session of a Social Enterprise 101 Seminar for Business Enablers and Industry Leaders, at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel, New Kingston on June 07, 2017.

He noted that social enterprises will be critical to Jamaica’s growth and development thrust going forward.

“Along with Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), social enterprises are indispensable to achieving, not just mere growth, but broad-based, inclusive growth, which also supports the attainment of several specific goals under the National Development Plan – Vision 2030,” he stated.

He further stated that the Government will continue to increase its efforts in providing robust support to the sector by enacting and implementing the necessary institutional reforms and legislations to make the sector more vibrant, competitive, and sustainable.

The director general also lauded the work of the Social Enterprise Boost Initiative (SEBI), one of Jamaica’s most innovative business development programmes whose primary goal is to create an enabling business environment which facilitates the growth of social enterprises in Jamaica.

The two-day seminar, June 7-8, 2017, is hosted by the Social Enterprise Boost Initiative, the World Bank and the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries.

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The Government is assuring investors in social enterprises that legislation and institutional reforms are being implemented for the sector.

According to Director General in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Vivian Brown, the sector is getting crucial attention to ensure widespread awareness of the concept of social enterprises, and the provision of business development support services.

He was opening a two-day workshop on the sector, today (June 7), at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston.

Mr. Brown said capacity building that strengthens and enhances the growth of the sector is ongoing to promote creativity and innovation in social entrepreneurship, and will culminate in a viable legal structure for social enterprise operation.

“The Government will continue to increase its efforts to provide robust support to the social enterprise, to make the sector more vibrant, competitive and sustainable,” he told the participants.

The event is part of the Social Enterprise Boost Initiative (SEBI), organised by the JN Foundation, in conjunction with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which has been established to create empowering opportunities in social enterprises.

It is particularly geared at organisations that are committed to the development and sustainability of the social and economic well-being of communities, groups and individuals. They are receiving support from the SEBI to become significant contributors to national growth.

Topics for discussion at the workshop include ‘Social Enterprises: a global trend – but what are they?’, ‘Jamaican social enterprises supporting social and economic goals’, and ‘Using social enterprises to address developmental challenges’.

A social enterprise is a revenue-generating business whose primary objective is to maximise profits so as to reinvest the surplus in the business or the community for social or environmental well-being.

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Authors of Global Change and the Caribbean, adaptation and resilience, Dr. Thera Edwards (left) and Professor David Barker sign copies of their book which was launched by the University of the West Indies Press and the JN Foundation. Sharing in the moment are (from right ) Fitzgerald Jeffrey, high commissioner of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago; Saffrey Brown, general manager of JN Foundation and Onika Miller, managing director, MCS Group. The book launch took place on Thursday, May 25 at Alhambra Inn, Kingston. The book looks into issues of regional and community vulnerability and focuses on the solutions in terms of adaptation, resilience and transformation of society.

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More than 50 employees of the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts were recent beneficiaries of the JN Foundation’s Financial Empowerment Programme.

An interactive session, participants were exposed to smart and practical money management lessons to promote financial stability and wellness. Launched in 2015, The Financial Empowerment Programme targets employees across the Jamaica National Group, as well as students, organisations and sundry groups across the island, to promote financially literacy among Jamaicans.

Backed by JN Bank, the programme was established based on the theory that saving and investment play a pivotal role in empowering individuals as well as for the enhancement of the country’s economy.

A doctor bird seeming to greet visitors as it swiftly flaps its wings and plunges its elongated beak into a fiery-red ginger lily in pursuit of nectar, is all the confirmation one needs to know that they are in for a truly authentic Jamaican treat. This is Bunkers Hill, Trelawny, located at the entrance to the biodiverse Cockpit Country, which abounds with nature and history.

Home to 66 of the country’s endemic plants and several species of animals not found anywhere else on earth, one could describe the Cockpit Country as the “literal heart of the nation,” preserving not only plants and animals native to Jamaica, but also cultural rituals and practices dating back to the inhabitation of this land by the Maroons, led by Captain Cudjoe and the legendary heroine, Nanny.

All of these fine distinctions make the Bunkers Hill Cultural Xperience unlike tours that Jamaica has to offer in its versatile tourism product.

With the gushing waters of the Tangle River, which flows into the Martha Brae, creating the spine of the five-acre property, this cultural enclave captures the history of Jamaica and gives one the opportunity to live and breathe its essence.

As you enter the caves on the banks of the river, for example, you can see the writings and carvings of the Taino people who once inhabited it; or hike a few miles and bravely climb the steep cliffs to a cave which sustained Cudjoe and his men in their effort to evade the British. However, caution: it’s not a trip for the faint-hearted.

Beyond the caves lies the ruins of the Dromilly Great House, and the site where Cudjoe and his men ambushed British troops around 1795.

Everything about the Bunkers Hill Cultural Xperience is authentically Jamaican.
“We prepare authentic Jamaican meals such as run dung and roast yam, roasted sweet potato, dukoonoo, rice and peas with coconut milk —grated and the juice strained —your cornmeal pudding, all cooked on wood fires,” Clover Gordon, who jointly manages the property with her husband, O’Brian, explained, stimulating one’s appetite.

The drinks and meals are served in painted enamel cups and plates along with the utensils Jamaicans used in the 19th to mid-20th centuries; or, on banana leaves, carefully cleaned calabash shells, as was the practice of the Maroons. These traditions are also kept alive by their descendants in some rural Jamaican communities.

One of the social enterprises nurtured under the Social Enterprise Boost Initiative by the JN Foundation and the US Agency for International Development, the Bunkers Hill Cultural Xperience relies on the resources of the Bunkers Hill community and its surrounding hamlets for sustenance. Consequently, more than 90 per cent of its food and 100 per cent of its human resources come from the community.

“We are going to need more support from the community,” Clover Gordon said, as the attraction, which recently received its permit from the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) and is in the process of applying for an operating licence from the Jamaica Tourist Board, prepares for its official opening to the public in July.

“At that time, we may be needing 100 pounds of chicken, so they will need to increase supplies. Therefore, if Jane don’t have, Mr Peter will have next week,” she stated. “Because 90 per cent of what we use comes from the community and we want as many guests as possible to come here so that the community benefits.”

The operation provides an employment and production boon in the community, giving its mainly farming constituents an additional source of income. It already employs 10 people part-time; and, with its upcoming launch and expansion, there will be need for additional cooks, tour guides, life guards, and others.

For Kemar, who travels daily to work miles away in Hanover at the Tryall Club, it provides an income during the “off season” when visitor bookings are low at the high-end resort and there is no employment for him.

“It’s good employment here,” he said shyly. “It uplifts the community and gives us work.”

However, more important to him and Alexander, another young male resident employed as a tour guide, it allows them to discover aspects of their community and its indigenous culture that were not well known to them.

“I’m now learning about the Maroons and Tainos, because I’ve never been inside the caves,” said Kemar, a sense of excitement evident in his eyes, as he chopped wood to build a new thatch hut on the river bank.

To this, Alexander added: “I am more aware of my culture. It gives me a confidence boost that this place is rich in culture, and I feel rich being a part of the Maroon culture.”

For the Gordons, this historical introspection and cultural preservation is a primary objective of their Bunker’s Hill Cultural Xperience, which emerged to Clover Gordon in a literal dream some four years ago.

Beyond simply generating employment and economic activity in the community, the registration and inclusion of cultural groups, such as the Deeside Cultural Group and the Wakefield Tambo Group, are essential to maintaining the cultural development which the Gordons want to engender.

“Unfortunately, some residents are not aware of the historic and cultural value of their community,” said Clover Gordon. “The ruins of the Dromilly Great House is right around the corner and residents were not aware of the ambush that took place there; the caves are there with the Taino’s writings, and it was not until the Jamaica Caves Organisation came here that they learned about it.”

“Therefore, we want more residents to understand what they have in their community, because they have something rich here,” she stated.

“We have lost a lot of knowledge,” acknowledged Parish Manager of the Social Development Commission, Paula Barrett, who was born in Bunkers Hill. “Even the Nine Nights. They were not about large sound systems, as they are now, but about the ‘gere’ and the ‘bruk stone.’ We have lost that now.”

Plans are underway to formally open the Bunkers Hill Cultural Xperience to the public in July; and, to preserve and promote cultural authenticity, which is the primary objective of the Gordons.

The project capitalises on Clover Gordon’s years of experience and influence in the tourism industry in Negril, Westmoreland; and they are networking and using social media to promote this unique product.

“The sky’s the limit. We are less than an hour from the Falmouth Cruise Ship Pier and we have everything that tourists want to see in terms of who Jamaicans are — the beauty, landscape and experience the ambience,” said O’Brian Gordon, himself a native of Trelawny.

During the next month, the Gordons will complete areas such as a parking lot and septic tank to ensure congestion and health issues do not dampen the Bunkers Hill Cultural Xperience, and in the short term, cabin accommodations will also be added.

Jamaicans living overseas also have the opportunity to contribute to the development of the Bunkers Hill Cultural Xperience by investing in the JN Bank Diaspora Certificate of Deposit, from which a percentage of the interest earned will be matched and re-invested into businesses being nurtured by the Social Enterprise Boost Initiative by the JN Foundation.

“Our community is ready for the experience and look forward to the success,” O’Brian Gordon affirmed.

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It’s Monday afternoon at Jamaica College (JC) and the integrated science lab is buzzing with life, despite a downpour outside.

It’s not class as usual at JC, one of 12 high schools participating in the JN Foundation’s Science Genius Jamaica project. The others are Glenmuir, Clan Carthy, Westwood, Spot Valley, Cedric Titus, Maud Mcleod, May Day, Holy Trinity, Godfrey Stewart and Clarendon College.

The boys’ attention is fixed on their peers performing lyrics about ‘Healthy Lifestyle’, ensuring they smoothly ‘ride’ the dancehall track being played by their teacher and facilitator, Georgia Rudolph Blake, from her laptop. A young man deejays:

“Vitamins in a di lettuce and tomato,

Carbohydrates from the yam and potato,

A no meat alone gi u protein you can check cheese

Calcium build strong bones and teeth

Proteins mek yuh abs tough like concrete…,”

Blake desperately tries to contain the eruption of ‘forwards’ – mimicked blank shots in the air. “What you hear makes you think, ‘but I haven’t taught that area yet?'” says Blake. The boys put their lyrics together in 10 to 15 minutes after the teacher completes a topic.

“This is a new experience for me; and I believe it’s something we can incorporate in other subjects,” Blake said.

MUSIC INFECTIOUS

“Music is so infectious,” says dancehall DJ and mentor to the JN Foundation’s Science Genius Jamaica project, Tifa. “We simply want teachers to be open-minded,” she urged at the launch of the project in February.

Science Genius Project co-ordinator, the JN Foundation’s Chevanese Peters, said, “Our teachers are discovering the approach and they believe that dancehall and pop culture can in fact facilitate learning … . Some teachers may not be sure about the lyrics and beats and so on, but they are ready to meet the students where they are.

“What we are experiencing is a ripple effect, in which students are teaching themselves and teaching others; and they are being influenced to do the research.”

The project’s mentors, dancehall artistes Tifa and Wayne Marshall, are also assisting students to place what they are learning in a serious context, Peters explained.

“We really want to ensure that students are grasping and understanding the scientific concepts that are being taught,” she said.

In June, Science Genius Jamaica will move into its competition phase, as the schools engage in lyrical clashes in a series of BATTLES (Bringing Attention to Transforming Teaching, Learning and Engagement in Science).

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Scores of employees of the Jamaica National Group and dozens of volunteers in the JN Foundation’s ACTION Jamaica Volunteer Corps, laboured to enhance police stations, lock-ups and schools in 14 communities across the country, on Tuesday.

Among the main entities which received the attention of employees and volunteers was one of two national projects — the Central Police Station, downtown Kingston’s main police facility.
More than 60 JN Foundation ACT!ON volunteers and employees of the JN Group joined people from other corporate entities and government, to give a needed facelift to the nearly 100-year-old police station.

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Bresheh Enterprises will become a major employer of Jamaicans with disabilities, if brothers Randy and Davian McLaren continue to pursue the right development strategies to fulfil their dream.

If you have seen any of these stunning bags -knapsacks, tote bags, laptop sleeves or pencil pouches – you will remember Bresheh Enterprises for its beautiful products. However, what makes the small East Kingston company truly stand out, is the fact that their eight-member staff, includes two persons with disabilities.

“We believe that for our country’s economy to grow, more persons in marginalised communities, such as inner-city youth and persons living with disabilities must be empowered. And, ‘decent work’ is one of the ways for them to be empowered,” Randy McLaren said. “That is why we have established our business to be a source of empowerment for marginalised persons.”

Randy and Davian founded Bresheh in 2015 on the veranda of their home off Windward Road. They wanted to offer high-quality local alternatives to imported bags and to provide jobs for residents in their community.

Increased Demand

Within a year, the brothers relocated to a larger location at the Alpha Institute on South Camp Road, in East Kingston, based on increased demand for their bags.

“The opportunity emerged because they understood our vision as a social enterprise. It was centrally located and they were willing to accommodate us,” McLaren stated.

In addition to their own efforts, they employed staff members through the HEART Trust/NTA and disabilities’ organisations. “We grew up in Whitehall, St Thomas, and understood what it felt like not to have opportunities,” noted McLaren. “Therefore, in expanding our operation, we provided opportunities to persons who would not be traditionally considered for employment,” he added.

New employee, Georgia Williams, who is hearing-impaired, said she previously worked in the craft industry, but found it difficult to acquire a permanent job.

“Frequently, when I seek employment, I am told that it would be difficult for other persons to communicate with me,” Williams said, via a written response. “This usually meant that I did not get the job. Now, I have been with Bresheh Enterprises for the past three months, and I am hoping to grow with the company.”

Learning sign language to better facilitate employees with disability
Randy McLaren noted that the two employees with disabilities were hearing-impaired, while the other workers were from “at risk” and rural communities.

“The communication barrier for the hearing-impaired staff was eliminated by getting them to write their requests,” McLaren explained. “At the same time, we are learning sign language to make this process smoother.”

He noted that this will ensure that quality standards can be maintained by the entire team. “We receive orders from around the globe, as far away as Scotland and Switzerland, in addition to our local customers,” he added.

Recently, Bresheh Enterprises placed second in the Social Enterprise Boost Initiative (SEBI) Pitch for Purpose Competition. The contest allowed five social enterprises to pitch their business concepts and highlight their purpose and the company’s potential to use the development funds, to a panel of judges.

As part of their prize, JN Small Business Loans (JNSBL) will provide coaching, assistance in strengthening their business plan and strategy, as well as identify financing options.

“In addition to the Bresheh pitch in the competition, we were also impressed with the quality of their bags; and their focus on employing persons with disabilities,” explained Thelma Yong, deputy general manager, JNSBL.

“The feedback about the quality of their bags has been excellent, and more persons, particularly teens and young adults, are gravitating towards the trendy items. We are pleased with the quality work they have achieved and look forward to working with them to become a household name,” explained Yong.

Bresheh Enterprises purchases all the raw material needed for their bags from local companies, who import the textiles. Their dream is to use only items that are locally produced. “We are currently researching how to make organic cloth, and, in the future, we will be expanding into that area; as well as, making all new types of bags,” Randy McLaren said, declaring, “I feel good about the future.”

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It was an extraordinary day for Jonathan Henry on Friday as, for the first time in his life, he was able to hear animals.The 16-year-old lost his hearing at age two after what his father suspects was a case of negligence at birth.

“What happened was that he was born and diagnosed with jaundice and, apparently, the doctors or the nurses didn’t detect it until we took him home and noticed that he was looking pale and we take him back to the hospital,” Wayon Henry, Jonathan’s father told the Jamaica Observer.

“They had to do a blood transfusion and he caught a cold, so they had to treat him with antibiotics. We didn’t get a doctor to spit it out to us like this, but a doctor that check him up over by Bustamante Hospital said to me that what happened was that it seems as if he had gotten a double dose of antibiotics and that is what push out and burst the inner ear,” he continued.

He noted that after this incident, the parents “would see fluids coming out of the ear” whenever Jonathan lay on his side. His son, he said, would also cry that his ears were hurting.

According to Wayon, a doctor at another institution told him that the fluids he saw were “supposed to collect the sounds, and told us we should think about getting him to a sign language school”.

Jonathan’s hearing gradually depleted and at age two it was at its worse. With one other child to care for, the family were not able to get Jonathan hearing aids at the time.

But last year — roughly 12 years after he lost his hearing — the Henrys saw a glimmer of hope when the Jamaica National Foundation learnt of Jonathan’s story and purchased two hearing aids that he needed.
“It’s a wonderful experience. It is so amazing to know that after going through all these struggles with him and now…to know that he has been granted the hearing aid. I can speak to him verbally instead of making signs; it’s really good. I’m just giving God thanks; it’s just such an awesome feeling,” Wayon told the Observer with a broad grin.

On Friday Jonathan tested his new devices at the Hope Zoo in St Andrew. The thrill of the experience could be easily observed as Jonathan heard, saw, and interacted with the animals he would only see on the television and in books.

Carried around the location by various employees, Jonathan’s exclusive tour mainly focused on various birds — the most vocal animals. His most memorable part of his tour was his time feeding the Budgies.

“I look at the different kinds of birds and I saw the different colour birds, and they have different voices and I heard their voices. When I got the food, they were called, and they would come down,” Jonathan told the Observer through his interpreter and teacher, Dorothy Williams.

He attested to learning much more than he had known about animals, one of such lessons being that birds communicate with each other through different “voices and callings”.

“I look at the different colour birds, I said how come they have different colours. so I watched them and I said wow, there were big birds too. I saw the ostrich and I looked at the ostrich, and I was thinking that they can run fast. if I had one like that and stole his egg and ran, what would they do to me? they would run fast; that would be like in a movie,” he said with a snicker.

He noted his fascination with the snake, the zebra, the deer, and monkeys.

“I saw the goat with the big horn. I saw the woman goat and I saw the man goat. They were just looking so cute and I just looked at them,” an elated Jonathan stated.

The day’s events were also exciting for JN Foundation’s General Manager Saffrey Brown who, along with zoo employees, worked to ensure Jonathan’s comfort.

“What we wanted to do was really kind of expose him to all the wonderful sounds out there, and we felt that Hope Zoo — which is such a beautiful space now with the really incredible animals — is a really good space to do that. So we brought Jonathan here today (Friday) to listen to the animals, for him to hear all the different sounds, to hear the different pitches. It’s really an absolutely wonderful day,” she said.

Now a member of the JN Foundation family, Jonathan will be monitor and benefit from speech therapy.

“We’re making sure that Jonathan is okay. He is now at the Caribbean Christian Centre for the Deaf; we’re trying to make sure that he gets proper access to employment programmes. We do a lot of work with Deaf Can!, which is again about employment for young deaf communities. so we’re going to make sure that Jonathan gets access to that kind of programming and that kind of opportunity to live an extremely independent life,” she noted.

“Over the next year or two we’re going to work with him in terms of a speech therapist to try to make sure that as his hearing returns so too does his ability to communicate effectively verbally. Truth is, he is part of the family now and families stay together.”

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Each year, Mother’s Day is celebrated globally on the second Sunday in May to honour the important role that mothers play in the home, the community and in professional spaces. It recognizes the seminal role of mothers in the life of every citizen and zeroes in on her role as part of an immediate family.

Digicel Foundation, as part of its mandate to help build stronger communities, treated mothers in non-traditional jobs who may well be overlooked by the public, to a pre-Mother’s Day Brunch in collaboration with our partners at the Jamaica National Foundation, Grace Kennedy, Early Childhood Commission and the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development.

Each partner identified one mother on staff who they believe deserves a “Mothers’ Day Off” from work. The mothers were treated to brunch and gifts courtesy of Café Neita and Deaf Can! Coffee on Friday May 12 at Pheonix Central on Pheonix Avenue in Kingston.

They were also serenaded by the 2016 Digicel Rising Star winner,  Elton Earlington.

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