标签： Jamaica

MANCHESTER, Jamaica — A truck driver walked away with barely a scratch after a harrowing crash on one of Jamaica’s most dangerous stretches of roadway Tuesday morning. The incident unfolded just after 8 a.m. along the Spur Tree Hill main road in Manchester, when the driver lost control of their box truck while navigating a sharp bend, leading the vehicle to tip and overturn.

The force of the rollover left the truck’s cargo hold significantly damaged, releasing dozens of boxes filled with grocery goods that spilled across the full width of the road. Local authorities have confirmed no instances of looting have been reported in the wake of the crash, a rare positive detail amid the disruption.

This latest incident is far from an isolated event on the notoriously dangerous highway, which has seen three serious collisions in just over a month. Only two weeks prior, two elderly motorists escaped major harm when their car veered off the road and plunged down a steep cliff face near the same stretch of Spur Tree Hill. On April 7, two people lost their lives when a cement-carrying heavy truck left the roadway in another fatal crash.

The string of crashes has reignited questions about road safety measures along Spur Tree Hill, a route long flagged by local communities as high-risk for accidents due to its winding, hilly terrain.

KINGSTON, Jamaica — When Hurricane Melissa swept across Jamaica, it left behind a trail of widespread destruction that stretched the island’s recovery resources to their limit. Months later, as rebuilding work continues across affected communities, the American Friends of Jamaica (AFJ) has announced a plan to recognize three outstanding contributors to the island’s storm recovery effort at its 2026 Jamaica Charity Gala. The three honorees, who come from the non-profit and private sectors, will be celebrated for their critical work delivering life-saving aid and coordinating large-scale rebuilding projects in the wake of the disaster.

The award ceremony will take place on June 6 in Miami, where the three leaders will accept their honors before guests from South Florida’s Jamaican and philanthropic communities. The honoree list includes Michael Capponi, founder of the Global Empowerment Mission (GEM); Edward Raine, president and chief executive officer of Food For The Poor; and Norman Horne, executive chairman of Jamaica’s ARC Manufacturing Limited.

In a statement ahead of the event, AFJ Executive Director Caron Chung emphasized that the recognition goes beyond one-time disaster response: the three leaders are being honored for both their immediate, on-the-ground action and their sustained, long-term leadership that has kept recovery efforts moving forward months after the storm passed. Chung noted that the awards also shine a spotlight on the critical partnership between private sector and non-profit organizations that amplified the Jamaican government’s national recovery work, filling gaps that public resources alone could not address.

Capponi’s GEM was one of the first organizations to mobilize support after Hurricane Melissa made landfall. Leveraging prepositioned supply warehouses across the region and pre-established coordination networks with local and regional emergency agencies, the group moved more than one million pounds of emergency supplies into affected areas within the first seven days after the storm hit. By early 2026, GEM’s total shipments to Jamaica have grown to approximately four million pounds, and the organization has shifted its focus to longer-term recovery work, including installing temporary roofing for displaced households and repairing critical damaged community facilities.

Under Raine’s leadership, Food For The Poor took on a core logistical leadership role in the national response effort. The organization oversaw end-to-end management of inbound aid shipments, managed all customs clearance processes for incoming humanitarian goods, and coordinated the last-mile distribution of supplies to hard-hit communities across the island. Raine’s team committed more than US$4 million to the recovery effort, established two new regional logistics hubs in Montego Bay and Spanish Town to speed up delivery, and scaled up operations to deliver food supplies to thousands of vulnerable households every day at the height of the response. Building on this immediate work, Food For The Poor has now launched a multi-phase housing reconstruction programme to help permanently rehouse families who lost their homes in the storm.

Horne’s ARC Manufacturing filled a key gap in the relief logistics network, expanding response capacity beyond what air freight could accommodate. Working alongside AFJ and other private sector partners, ARC Manufacturing coordinated large-volume sea freight deliveries of critical supplies including food, temporary shelter materials, and clean water infrastructure that allowed relief operations to keep up with the massive need across the island.

Beyond the award ceremony, the 2026 Jamaica Charity Gala serves as one of AFJ’s primary annual fundraising events for Jamaica-focused development initiatives based in South Florida. This year’s event will feature a silent auction of donated goods and experiences, a formal dinner, and live entertainment for attendees. All proceeds from the gala will go toward supporting AFJ’s ongoing grant programmes across Jamaica, spanning key development areas including education, healthcare, and community-led economic development.

On a meaningful Monday marking Jamaica’s annual Education Week, local lawmaker Matthew Samuda, the Member of Parliament for St Ann North East, kicked off a transformative community education project: the “Books for Babies” initiative. The launch event was hosted at St Ann’s Bay Infant School, where more than 200 brand new children’s books were distributed directly to young learners to lay the groundwork for strong early childhood education.

Backed by two key institutional partners—the CHASE Fund, a prominent Jamaican grant-making body focused on social development, and the local Di Cawna Library—the programme centers on one core mission: nurturing a lifelong habit of reading starting from the earliest stages of childhood development. Speaking to attendees including parents, teachers and school officials, Samuda emphasized the well-documented developmental importance of a child’s first 1,000 days, a window widely recognized by education experts as critical to shaping long-term cognitive and academic outcomes.

Beyond the immediate book distribution, Samuda extended a long-term pledge to the constituency’s young students, affirming consistent support across every stage of their educational journeys. “This is an ongoing commitment. As you progress through school, we will be alongside you at every step, to make sure you have every tool you need to thrive in whatever career path you choose,” he told the gathered audience.

The “Books for Babies” project is not an isolated effort, but part of a wider, sustained education support strategy rolled out across the St Ann North East constituency. Samuda explained that directing resources to local children is the most effective long-term approach to addressing the community’s ongoing social and economic challenges. “Every resource we can access will go to the children of this constituency, because that is the only real way to turn the corner on the issues we face as a community,” he added.

Samuda also took the opportunity to recognize the extraordinary resilience of the school’s teaching staff, particularly amid the recent disruption of the school’s temporary relocation to a new site. He extended early warm greetings to all local educators ahead of the upcoming Teachers’ Day celebrations. To the young students in attendance, he offered a simple, powerful encouragement: prioritize reading at home. “Growth, maturity and long-term prosperity all start with reading. When you get home today, ask your parents to read with you,” he said.

Lionie Bailey, a regional representative from Jamaica’s Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information (Region 3), echoed Samuda’s call for parental engagement, urging caregivers to make shared daily reading a non-negotiable routine. Bailey highlighted that even just a few minutes of reading together each day can deliver profound benefits: building young children’s confidence, strengthening the emotional bond between parent and child, and nurturing a lasting love of learning that carries through adulthood. She reminded attendees that parents are a child’s first and most influential teacher, and their consistent presence and involvement are irreplaceable in building strong literacy foundations that set children up for future success.

Wilford “Billy” Heaven, Chief Executive Officer of the CHASE Fund, shared that his organization went above and beyond its original commitment to the initiative, donating 200 books rather than the 150 initially requested. The over-delivery, he explained, reflects the institution’s deep belief that reading is the absolute foundation of all formal education. “Reading remains essential to personal and intellectual growth, and we are incredibly proud to support young children at this critical early stage,” Heaven said. “These children are the future professionals and leaders who will build a stronger Jamaica, and we are proud to play a part in nurturing that future.” He reaffirmed the CHASE Fund’s ongoing commitment to supporting impactful early childhood education initiatives across the country.

Rachel McDonald, an education specialist working with the Di Cawna Library, shared that her organization was honored to partner on the project after receiving an invitation from Samuda to join the launch. St Ann’s Bay Infant School, the event’s host, holds certification as a “brain builder centre” that serves children as young as two years old, making it an ideal location for the early literacy push. McDonald emphasized that early access to age-appropriate books is non-negotiable for building literacy skills starting in infancy. She noted that foundational learning does not only happen within school walls—it begins in everyday interactions between children and their caregivers—and that every member of the community has a role to play in building a more literate, equitable society.