MONTEGO BAY, St James — At the 11th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference hosted at the Montego Bay Convention Centre this Tuesday, Jamaica’s State Minister for Education, Skills, Youth and Information Rhoda Moy Crawford has made a direct appeal to members of the global Jamaican Diaspora, emphasizing that grassroots, personal acts of support can deliver just as much impact for vulnerable Jamaicans as large-scale formal government partnerships.
Crawford made her remarks during a panel discussion centered on the theme “Connecting, Engaging and Empowering the Youth Diaspora for National Development”. She pushed back against the common assumption that all Diaspora giving must flow through official government bureaucratic channels, noting that while structured, coordinated initiatives from both her ministry and organized youth groups play a critical role in national development, informal, community-focused acts of giving fill vital unmet needs.
“Your help in the Diaspora, it doesn’t always have to be channelled through the structured systems of government,” Crawford told attendees. “I am saying to you in the Diaspora, you don’t have to channel to Government, you don’t have to wait for partnership, you can return to the community that you came from, you can help a struggling child.”
Crawford clarified that she does not discount the critical value of coordinated Diaspora support during national crises, such as large-scale disaster response. Instead, she argued that even small, individual gestures can create transformative change, particularly for young students grappling with limited access to basic educational resources.
She offered attendees a range of tangible, accessible steps to get involved, from establishing personal named graduation awards to providing direct tuition grants, textbook stipends, or digital devices like tablets to local schools. “You can visit a school in the community you are from — or any other school across Jamaica. You can say to the principal, ‘Hey, I want to give back in a tangible way,’” she suggested.
While Crawford noted that Members of Parliament (MPs) can offer helpful guidance to Diaspora givers seeking to target their support, she stressed that there is no requirement for Diaspora donations to be controlled or managed by elected representatives. Givers can reach out directly to schools, or request contact information for students in need from MPs without ceding control of their funds. She also reminded attendees that MPs already maintain their own dedicated education funding: the Constituency Development Fund allocates $5 million per constituency for educational support initiatives, so independent Diaspora giving is not required to fill gaps covered by existing public resources.
Turning to ongoing recovery efforts in the wake of Hurricane Melissa, which swept across Jamaica last October, Crawford highlighted a pressing immediate need for Diaspora support. The storm damaged more than 600 of Jamaica’s over 1,000 public schools, leaving early childhood and primary education institutions particularly hard-hit. While the Ministry of Education and the National Education Trust have accelerated repair work across the island, Crawford said additional support from the Diaspora remains critical to getting all schools fully operational.
She encouraged even the smallest contributions to recovery, noting that basic building materials can make a major difference for under-resourced early childhood institutions. “If you see especially a basic school, an infant school and you want to give back, even before you go [back overseas], you can stop by. You can offer two bags of cement, a load of marl, you never know where your small help can go. No small act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted,” Crawford said.