Jamaica Outreach Online

Serving the St. Mary Parish, Jamaica

The History
Over nine years ago, when Ed and I first made a visit to Lyndale Girls’ Home and Swift Purscell Boys’ Home, two orphanages located in Highgate, Jamaica, we found living conditions bleak and attitudes hopeless. At the girls’ home we found 30 young girls, ages 6 to 18, were sleeping on holey mattresses, no sheets, pillows, curtains or color! Soap, toothpaste and towels were decidedly missing. All wards of the state, these young girls arrived at Lyndale from various backgrounds of neglect, abuse and abandonment. At the boys’ home we found 75 orphaned boys packed into a small cinder block dormitory with only 2 toilets and 2 showers for all 75 boys. The physical needs for sheets, towels, hygiene products, clothing and shoes were the same as the girls, but the numbers were much larger. For both homes, the need for doctors, dentists, optometrists and psychologists was overwhelming.

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Working to Create a Future
The dream of Jamaica Outreach, that all girls and boys leaving the orphanages at age 18 be provided the career training of their choice, has been met with much excitement by the orphans. They are eager to work to make products that can be sold in the United States. These young people are focused, precise and enthusiastic when it comes to creating saleable items that promise a brighter future for themselves.

Presently the girls and boys are making glassbead bracelets to be sold in the United States. They are also working on a line of greeting cards featuring photographs of their homeland. These products are sold through craft fairs, community meetings, churches and friends. The funds from the jewelry and cards sold are deposited into an account solely for the purpose of paying necessary tuitions for vocational trade schools, colleges, or the training of the child’s choice.

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Promising a Brighter Future
Something very exciting is happening in St. Mary Parish, Jamaica. A number of orphaned young people are now attending colleges and career training centers of their choice through funds generated by themselves and donations from organizations and individuals in the United States. We have two girls currently in college, Rackel and Delesha, studying hotel management and social work respectively. Shauna Kay has graduated from teacher’s college. Atasha has completed cosmetology school. Josiah is attending medical school in Cuba. Markland and David have completed mechanics school and carpentry school respectively. Six of the boys have completed chef school and are now working in bakeries and resorts.

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Change and an Expanded Vision
Over the last year, many changes have taken place with the administration of Lyndale Girls’ Home and Swift-Purscell Boys’ Home. The girls’ home was closed for major repairs and has not yet re-opened. Jamaica Outreach has kept in touch with the girls as they scattered in many directions, from other orphanages to foster homes. We continue to raise funds for their continuing education. The boys’ home has undergone a re-organization and now there are 60 boys at Swift-Purscell. While our focus continues to be on furthering the education of the girls and boys, our vision has expanded to the Parish of St. Mary.

Over the last six years, Jamaica Outreach has brought medical and dental teams directly to the girls’ and boys’ homes to service the children, who numbered about 130. With the girls’ home closure and the diminished numbers at the boys’ home, our medical and dental teams could no longer justify a week at the homes.

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Doc Jane

OUR MISSION

To improve the lives and promise a future for the youth of St. Mary Parish on the island of Jamaica through health-focused clinics, much-needed constructions projects in area primary schools and orphanages, and scholarshiping outstanding students to attend local colleges and trade schools.

tamra

OUR DREAM

To assure that all girls and boys graduating from high school in St. Mary will be provided the career training of their choice, promising a personally productive future for themselves and hope for the land they love, Jamaica. To make health care available to those too impoverished to pay for private medical care. To assist in building projects that promise a better quality of schooling in St. Mary, Jamaica.

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Our Vision

Through a serendipitous meeting nine years ago in the Chicago airport with Ms. Angella Beharie, overseer of two orphanages in Highgate, Jamaica, my husband and I have dedicated ourselves to the promise of a better future for some very, very special Jamaican orphans. This year our vision expanded to working with area primary schools and local medical clinics, further enriching and promising a better future for all Jamaicans. We hope you will share in our vision.
— Pam and Ed Bliss

Pam and Duel