Although Jamaica signed the UN Treaty which guarantees the right of every child to play, there are concerns that a dearth of safe play spaces, particularly in dense urban communities, is preventing Jamaican children from fully enjoying this right."I...
For years, residents of Willowfield in eastern St Thomas have pleaded with the authorities to fix the basic amenities in the community.They live without street lights, with bad roads and no potable water. To compound the matter, the spring where...
Despite the many push factors, a majority of the beneficiaries of this year's Youth Leaders of the Americas Initiative (YLAI) have declared that they are convinced that they can achieve their dreams in Jamaica.The group of young people recently...
Josh-Ray Green recalls more rough days than smooth ones as a student of Munro College, but after securing 12 grade ones, all with straight A profiles in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination, and being admitted at the...
For many persons, the experience of being placed into foster care was horrific, with numerous stories over the years of foster parents who failed the children in their homes, but not so for Claudine Bailey.As Jamaicans join the rest of the world in...
With a placard bearing the image of 14-year-old Yetanya Francis held high, Terisa Benjamin made her way to the waterfront, downtown Kingston, with scores of persons who took to the streets of downtown Kingston yesterday for Jesus in the City Parade...
Mathematics has always been a difficult subject for 10-year-old Shatara Young, but by creating a maths gazebo at her school, she has found a solution that is helping her, and other students, to better grasp the subject."I too have maths problems,"...
Veterinary surgeon Dr Terrina Jones is urging Jamaicans not to take on the responsibility of raising dogs if the only thing they can feed them is table scraps.According to Jones, while it is customary for Jamaicans to feed their dogs leftover food,...
Traumatised by the murder of close relatives or friends, and scarred from excessive abuse, some of the nation's children have gone mute.Unfortunately, with only five speech pathologists in the island, there are not many persons qualified to get them...
Of the more than 2,000 children seeking assessment at the Mico Care Centre annually, approximately 75 per cent are boys who are often taken there by desperate and frustrated mothers searching for help.The Mico Care Centre is operated by the Mico...
The 2018 Jamaica Health and Lifestyle Survey has found that more men than women across the island are rubbing on the bleaching cream, and male development specialist Marlon Moore is not surprised."Women love brown men," said Moore before adding, "I...
The investigation into the improper disposal of two dead babies at the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) in May has revealed that one of the bodies had been at the hospital morgue for more than a year.The probe also found that the bodies of babies were...
Concerned that many lactating mothers have little option but to flush the breast milk they produce while at work, Stephen Robinson, acting regional nutritionist for the South East Regional Health Authority, has joined the call for more baby-...
With Jamaicans trying to come to grips with a spate of domestic disputes ending in murder in recent weeks, president of the Jamaica Council of Churches, Merlyn Hyde-Riley, is concerned that some persons are remaining in loveless relationships...
Acknowledging that the Bible has been used by some Christians in instances to justify abuse in the church, deputy general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Professor Isabel Apawo Phiri, has called upon the clergy to also consider...
Despite an extensive national crusade to get Jamaicans moving, the latest national health and lifestyle survey has shown that 52 per cent of Jamaicans made no attempt to increase their physical activity last year, and for most of those who work, the...
Jamaica's early childhood programme has been hailed as an example for the region by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).The IDB has also ranked Jamaica and Barbados at the top of 58 low- and middle-income countries in Latin America and the...
As the first certified nuclear pharmacists in the English-speaking Caribbean, Tracia-Gay Kennedy-Dixon is venturing into an area with known risks but with even greater potential for diagnosing a wide range of illnesses that create undue burdens for...
There are calls for a deeper analysis of a national survey which has shown that there is an unusually high rate of depression among Jamaican men in the 55 to 64 year age group, particularly from the parishes of Manchester and Trelawny.More women are...
As the executive director of a pro-life organisation, Christina Milford interfaces with women and girls on a daily basis who are experiencing extreme guilt and trauma after aborting their babies."We recognise that abortion kills babies and hurts...
She played hard and worked even harder, and as relatives and friends filled the Boulevard Baptist Church, St Andrew, to pay their last respects to former Gleaner advertisement executive Sandra Brown-Bennett yesterday, they all agreed that she always...
Like a number of working mothers in Jamaica, Terri-Ann Forrester-Palmer had to pump breast milk in the bathroom at her workplace to ensure her firstborn was properly fed in 2007."I had her during university and I decided that I was going to get a...
Paul Smith, president of the Healthcare Social Workers Association of Jamaica (HSWAJ), is concerned that several trained social workers are not finding employment in Jamaica, despite the increasing need for persons who specialise in this field....
As concerns mount about the increasing rate of obesity among Jamaica's children, the University of the West Indies and the Ministry of Health will be rolling out a national project next month intended to promote the healthy growth of children.The...
After working with traumatised children for decades, clinical social worker Dr Claudette Crawford-Brown is convinced that play therapy is the perfect anecdote for healing the wounds being experienced by those who are exposed to a myriad of social...
