International Project

Jamaica Chapter

When we think of visiting Jamaica, we only imagine the island of paradise, serenity and palm trees waving in the breeze. What we fail to conceptualize is the great deal of poverty that is scattered amongst the beautiful greenery, just outside of those "tourist safe hotels."

~ Terry a O'Neal ~

On a recent visit to Granville All-Age School and Chetwood Memorial Primary School in Jamaica, Terry A O'Neal had the opportunity to share her words of inspiration and some of her books with the children. O'Neal said that she was touched to see their adorable little faces as they listened intriguingly while she spoke. "They are so appreciative of the little things," O'Neal stated. "When we think of visiting Jamaica, we only imagine the island of paradise, serenity and palm trees waving in the breeze because that is what we see on television and in the magazines. What we fail to conceptualize is the great deal of poverty that is scattered amongst the beautiful greenery just outside of those tourist safe hotels." Young poet Jessica Moyer, recently published in the newly released youth poetry anthology, "Make Some Noise!" described this realism so well in her poem, "My Child of Paradise."

Nothing is taken for granted on the island of Jamaica--all is used to its core. The excitement of the children was overwhelming and deeply touching as they scrambled to be near her as she walked and talked in the classrooms. Some of them had never seen an author and dared not think that they, too, could write a book.

"Everything is so scarce here," O'Neal thought, when a teacher asked her for a piece of paper to write down the school's address so that she could send back inscribed books to the class when she returned to the United States. O'Neal realized that if paper was scarce for the instructors, it certainly must be scarce for the children. How would they even experiment with writing if they didn't have the resources? O'Neal knew that the scarcity of supplies and rare contact with authors was something not unique to Jamaica but issues that schools in the United States faced within their own context. Jamaica was not the first school that O'Neal had visited where there was a need, but the degree of need that she witnessed that day birthed a vision that would be carried out once she returned to the United States - Lend Your Hand.