NSSC providing relief to western Ja
Published:Friday | January 9, 2026 | 12:07 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
The National Secondary Students’ Council (NSSC) is remaining steadfast in its bid to play a pivotal role in the ongoing Help the West initiative, which is designed to help the western parishes that were severely impacted by Hurricane Melissa.
Launched by the NSSC last November, the initiative is a nationwide relief effort urging young people to donate items such as non-perishable food, clothing, bedding, and school supplies at designated drop-off points in all parishes.
NSSC President Brian Anderson told The Gleaner that the campaign was launched following calls the body received from young people who wanted to help with relief efforts in the aftermath of the hurricane, which ravaged parishes such as Westmoreland, St Elizabeth, Hanover, St James, and Trelawny.
“Our goal was simple: to ensure young people across the island had the opportunity to support one another,” said Anderson. “In response to the devastation caused by the storm, young people felt compelled to help, and we made sure they were not overlooked.
“Through outreach across several parishes, we partnered with many organisations supporting the west as this was an effective way to instil a spirit of volunteerism among our youth while supporting those who were impacted,” he added.
The NSSC also formed a youth coalition on October 29, prior to launching the Help the West initiative, which brought together 1,000 young people through the effort of government and non-government youth groups to aid the relief effort. They also carried out a feeding programme on November 15, providing lunch for students of Green Island Primary School and Green Island High School in Hanover, which also benefitted recipients from neighbouring Westmoreland.
“We joined up with several other organisations that are under the Ministry of Education and also non-government organisations like the Jamaica Union of Tertiary Students, the National Youth Council of Jamaica, and the humanitarian group Aspirar Jamaica. We collaborated with them to get the youth involved in hurricane-restoration activities,” said Anderson.
“We also have a bag drive, which is slated to take place in late January. We are still liaising with Inspired Horizons Collective, a New Jersey-based group, for that event, but they have already collected all the items so far, and so we are just waiting for them to carry the items to Jamaica,” Anderson added.
Orlando Samuels, a student of Petersfield High School in Westmoreland, who was among the beneficiaries of the NSSC’s November 15 feeding programme, expressed immense gratitude for the organisation’s outreach effort for students like him.
“We really appreciate how much effort the NSSC is putting to support all students that were affected by Hurricane Melissa. To be honest, a lot of students do not know where they are going to get their next meal from, and the fact that NSSC are doing this really means a lot, to be honest,” said Samuels.
The NSSC was established in 1975 under the Ministry of Education, with the aim of ensuring that students could have a direct say in decisions that would impact them.