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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
MISSION SPOTLIGHT: JAMAICA REGIONAL MISSION
In this section:
Caribbean Isles Seem Idyllic But Have Major Development
Needs
Caribbean ‘Builds Back Better’ After
Hurricane
Aid to Schools Helps Children Read, Develop
Farmers Switch to Pineapples that Withstand
Hurricane Winds and Rains
Caribbean Isles Seem Idyllic But Have Major Development
Needs
KINGSTON, Jamaica—This idyllic region of tropical
islands widely known for its reggae music and vacation resorts
also faces major development problems of poverty, crime, and
education, which are being tackled through an extensive U.S.
aid program based here.
Caribbean nations derive their income from tourism, which
in Jamaica alone accounts for nearly two-thirds of the gross
domestic product (GDP). But the global economic slowdown of
recent years and the September 11 terrorist attacks slowed
down tourism.
Most Caribbean economies face long-term problems, such as
high interest rates, foreign competition, unemployment, and
a growing internal debt, the result of government bailouts
to ailing economic sectors.
“A major challenge the region faces is the image conveyed
by commercials that you see on TV—the white sand beaches,
lovely water, and pleasure that people can have here. But
the reality is so different,” said Karen Turner, mission
director for the Caribbean Regional Program. “Once you
go off tourist resorts, the reality of these countries is
incredibly different, and sometimes it’s hard for people
to grasp that this other world that exists here is actually
more the reality.
“Nobody would believe, for instance, that there are
people in Kingston that don’t have running water, sanitation
facilities, toilets—that they don’t even have latrines,
or outhouses,” she added.
With a staff of 95 employees, the mission splits its staff
between Jamaica, with 81 employees, and Barbados, with 14.
The mission will spend $14.2 million in Jamaica this year
and another $13.6 in neighboring countries. Last year the
budget was similar, but complemented by $42.3 million in Grenada,
Tobago, and the Bahamas for reconstruction following Hurricane
Ivan, which caused severe destruction in September 2004; and
$18 million for hurricane recovery in Jamaica.
“The bottom line for the Caribbean region is that there
is a real challenge to achieve the kind of economic growth
that’s needed—to really maintain prosperity, meet
expectations, and to be able to invest in their countries
and their people for the future,” said Turner.
FrontLines Acting Deputy Managing Editor Kristina Stefanova
visited the Caribbean regional mission recently and wrote
this series of articles.
Caribbean ‘Builds Back Better’ After Hurricane
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Matthew Scott lives with his wife and six children
under a canvas stretched over the side of their home
and partly underneath it. The home lost its roof during
Hurricane Ivan. Scott is particularly hard-hit because
he lost his boat and fishing gear, and fishing provided
his main income. He has now received help from USAID
to fix his boat. “I’ve got nothing coming
in,” he says of finances. “Everything is going
into bills.”
Kristina Stefanova, USAID
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ST. GEORGES, Grenada—Francis Pascal says he
hopes he’ll never again experience anything like Hurricane
Ivan, which tore through this tiny Caribbean island-nation
with 135 mile per hour winds and heavy rains in September
2004.
Most of the 90,000 residents of the island—which is
twice the size of Washington, D.C.—were affected by the
storm.
“My neighbor’s roof flew like a kite and smashed
into mine—and then it was gone,” said Pascal.
Pascal ran out, sliding down the hill toward the main road,
when he saw some of his neighbors crouching under a house.
He joined them for the remainder of the storm.
“When I came out, it was a new Grenada,” he says.
The country suffered damage in excess of 200 percent of
the yearly gross domestic product. Ivan ripped off the roofs
of about 90 percent of all Grenadian buildings—homes,
hotels, government structures—and displaced nearly 18,000
people. Twenty-eight people died, and 700 were injured.
Nearby Caribbean nations—such as Tobago and the Bahamas,
where homes, roads, schools, and clinics were damaged—were
hard hit. In Jamaica, Ivan’s two-day assault caused 31
deaths, and some $580 million in damage to homes and businesses.
USAID responded with strong support to help the battered
islands, ranging from immediate emergency response to a longer-term,
one-year recovery and rehabilitation program.
At first the Agency provided temporary shelters, food, hygiene
kits, and water purification systems to the homeless. Then
it rolled out a longer-term reconstruction program, which
is rebuilding homes, schools, and other infrastructure, and
helping businesses—from fishermen in Grenada to farmers
in Jamaica—get back on their feet.
In Jamaica, an $18 million project is rebuilding infrastructure
and boosting the economy. The agriculture sector was especially
affected, as Ivan destroyed thousands of acres of papayas,
bananas, and plantains.
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Fishermen in Grenada are starting to go back out to
sea, as they have received help from USAID to repair
their boats after Hurricane Ivan. Hundreds of fishermen
lost equipment and their boat engines were damaged.
Leslie Stone, Wingerts
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USAID is now helping diversify crops and teaching farmers
to better prepare for future natural hazards. Planting of
peppers and pineapples is being encouraged because these low,
dense plants are more likely to survive a hurricane.
USAID has set up a few dozen demonstration plots around
the island, where farmer groups come twice a week to learn
about soil conservation, water-saving irrigation systems,
and new fertilizing techniques. The Agency also set up Jamaica’s
first 11 greenhouses, which have raised such interest that
farmers from around the island come to see them.
Claudius Dennis, who grows 10 acres of tomatoes, potatoes,
and peppers, is seeing a 40 percent increase in production
since he joined the program. He is also saving on fuel and
water expenses through the new irrigation system.
“It cuts a lot of my costs,” he said. “And
I can irrigate and fertilize at the same time now.
“The field office does us a great service, because
they come to see us—every day sometimes, or a couple
of times a week,” he added. “They get us special
training, and it’s not just in the fields; we can call
them anytime.”
Hurricane damage in Grenada was more extensive than elsewhere,
so USAID’s reconstruction project here is broader. By
the end of this year, U.S. assistance will have repaired more
than 700 homes. It has already fixed up community centers,
schools, and the island’s main water treatment plant,
which serves about 40,000 residents. Some 312 grants have
gone to NGOs providing vocational training and aid to small
businesses, farmers, and fishermen.
The housing project’s driving theme, “Build Back
Better,” is reflected in newly repaired homes such as
Pascal’s.
“You see those metal clamps?” he says, pointing
to his new ceiling. “They hold the plywood pieces together.
And we used to build flat roofs before. Now they are raised.
And I used more nails.”
New roofs are galvanized and reinforced with plywood, which
makes them sturdier than the old, mostly tin, flat roofs that
could not resist the pressure of strong winds. The greater
number of nails used also helps keep structures together.
Pascal got a building guide from USAID and spent nearly a
month repairing his home.
Grenada is technically outside of the hurricane belt—the
last hurricane to hit it was in 1955. But with unusually active
hurricane seasons in recent years, it was slammed not just
by Ivan but also by Emily in July 2005, which damaged many
fewer homes.
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Drawing by Deryl Hamilton, a student in Grenada who
participated in a competition urging children to express
their experience with Hurricane Ivan, which struck the
island in 2004. This drawing won the first prize, and
marks the January page of a 2006 calendar created by
the Agency for Reconstruction and Development, which
USAID advises.
Grenada Agency for Reconstruction and Development
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“[Ivan] was horrid,” said Marion Pierre, executive
trustee of Queen Elizabeth Children’s Home for abused
children that was severely damaged. It is now being repaired
through a U.S. project.
“We had four people on duty that night,” Pierre
said. “They hid the kids in the corners and covered them
with mattresses.
“Most of the roof caved in. We had about 10 to 12 hours
of lashing winds and rains.”
The home’s 27 children—ranging in age from 5 months
to 12 years—have been split up since Ivan. Ten are staying
in a three-bedroom rental apartment, while the rest are boarding
with families until the home reopens at the end of this year.
The home will have new walls, floors, roof, and kitchen.
Metal clamps and other “Build Back Better” measures
have also been applied.
Aside from repairing homes and major services like the water
treatment plant, U.S. aid helped fishermen go back out to
sea. Now the fishing industry—here and in Jamaica—is
growing again, after hundreds of fishermen have been given
tools and technical skills to resume their businesses.
Matthew Scott, a Grenadian fisherman, has been catching
snapper and tuna for more than 30 years. But Hurricane Ivan
left him on dry land after it smashed up his boat, damaging
the engine and washing away all tackle and communications
gear. U.S. aid recently replaced these items, and now Scott
says he spends every day working on the boat.
Like dozens of other fishermen, Scott was in a lagoon securing
boats when the storm hit. Most of the fishermen ran home,
only to find their families had gone into hiding elsewhere,
as their homes were battered.
Scott’s wife and six children now live under a canvas
stretched over the side of their home. “I only started
fishing last month, so I’ve got nothing coming in,”
he says of finances. “Everything is going into bills.”
Aside from assistance to individual Caribbean countries,
USAID has invested $415,000 in a disaster response and risk
reduction program through the Organization of Eastern Caribbean
States, which is carrying out a series of pilot projects addressing
stronger building code promotion and enforcement, low-cost
landslide mitigation, and hazard mapping and mitigation.
Aid to Schools Helps Children Read, Develop
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A boy and a girl read at Salt Marsh Primary School,
just outside of Montego Bay. New books and reading audio-help
materials have been provided to the school through a
presidential educational initiative, which has helped
improve reading skills at this school and numerous others.
Kimberly Flowers, USAID/Jamaica
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ST. JAMES, Jamaica—Salt Marsh Primary School
is the pride and joy of this community, some 10 miles from
Montego Bay, since its third graders dramatically improved
their reading skills over the past year.
More than 80 percent of its third-grade students scored
above Jamaica’s mastery level, compared to only 54 percent
during the 2003–04 school year. The increase comes two
years into the school’s participation in the USAID-funded
Caribbean Center of Excellence for Teacher Training (C-CETT)
project, a regional Bush administration initiative started
in 2001.
“We never had this abundance of books before or the
audio-video aids, and we never had a reading specialist at
hand,” said Fay Davy, Salt Marsh’s acting principal.
C-CETT, which aims to improve the reading skills of first
to third graders, works with 42 other Jamaican schools and
a total of 768 other primary schools throughout seven Caribbean
nations.
At Salt Marsh, the project provided funds to start a reading
room where teachers could spend more time with slow readers.
The school instituted a reading week. Teachers were sent to
seminars and workshops where they learned new techniques aimed
at improving students’ reading skills. And the school
has its own reading specialist, who serves as coach and mentor
to the teachers.
Alethia Samuels, second-grade teacher at Salt Marsh, said:
“I had some really mischievous children in grade two,
but I think the reading really helped change them a lot, especially
the boys. Every morning now they are unpacking their reading
books before class starts.”
From training seminars, Samuels learned how to pair up slow
readers with advanced students who could help their friends.
“Now I have to call on them to find out if they are in
the class,” Samuels says, “they are so quiet and
focused on their books.”
Some 14 percent of girls and 26 percent of boys in Jamaica
are illiterate. About 142,000 youths—mostly boys—are
out of school and unemployed.
Jamaican Minister of National Security Peter Phillips has
said that many petty criminals are young unemployed men, citing
a study showing that 75 percent of perpetrators of violent
crime are in the 15–29 age group.
“Boys’ underachievement at all levels of the education
system is problematic,” said Claire Spence, USAID education
officer. “With Jamaica’s homicide rate being third
highest in the world in 2003, the Jamaican education system
must help address the problem of youth violence and develop
socially and emotionally well-adjusted children.”
USAID is spending $5 million this year to improve education
in Jamaica through various projects.
For example, the Agency invested $300,000 through a public-private
alliance project called I-PLEDGE to print new, multicolor
English books for grades four through six. Last year, it supported
printing new math books for grades one through five.
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A teacher works with a remedial student at the St.
Margaret’s Human Resource Center in Kingston. The
after-school activity is part of a program aiming to
improve education of at-risk youth. In Jamaica, 26 percent
of males are illiterate and some 142,000 youths are
out of school and unemployed.
Kimberly Flowers, USAID/Jamaica
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“The printers were never paid on time, so the books
were always late,” said Aldith McDaniel Jones, principal
at Kingston’s Rousseau Primary School, attended by some
1,240 children. “But this year we got our books well
in time, a week before classes began.”
“The books were very well received,” she said.
“The first thing that the kids tell you is that the color
makes a big difference. It makes it all come alive.”
Jamaican youth drop out of the formal school system because
they cannot afford transportation to school or lunch, have
lost interest in education, or lack sufficient parenting,
educators say. These factors have led to a high number of
youth living a street life. And a mushrooming number of informal
schools run by NGOs and faith-based organizations have opened
their doors to reach out to them.
At one such school, St. Margaret’s Resource Center
in inner-city Kingston, 370 students up to age 18 spend their
days in class, remedial workshops, and vocational training.
“The profile of the youngsters here varies. They might
have been in school and dropped out; they might have never
been in school, or been kicked out,” said Suzanne Smith,
the center’s acting principal. “Many of them were
just lost in the system.”
St. Margaret’s is one of a handful of informal schools
that USAID supports through its Uplifting Adolescents Program.
The Agency is working with an umbrella organization of 25
groups targeting primarily inner cities throughout eastern
Jamaica to pluck children from the street and arm them with
enhanced educational and vocational skills.
“There are many factors like the violence element,
lack of parenting, or they just can’t afford the school
materials,” Smith said. “We offer them breakfast
and lunch programs, and sometimes they don’t want to
go home because they might not have that there.”
St. Margaret’s operates in three shifts and adjusts
its schedule on Fridays to accommodate some students who must
stay home and help their parents work the farm or sell at
the market that day.
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WORD FORMATION: Second-grade boys form words
with block letters provided to Salt Marsh Primary School
through the Caribbean Center of Excellence for Teacher
Training (C-CETT) project, a presidential initiative
that has helped schools in Caribbean nations improve
reading skills since 2001.
Kimberly Flowers, USAID/Jamaica
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Farmers Switch to Pineapples that Withstand Hurricane Winds
and Rains
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Jamaican farmer Outie Auchope loads his pineapple crop
in Ginger Hill, St. Elizabeth, near one of the demonstration
plots used by a USAID project teaching farmers new approaches
to protect the land and increase earnings. The program
convinced hundreds of farmers to plant timber and fruit
trees, improve drainage, and establish vegetative and
other barriers on hillside contours.
Sadie Dixon, Great River Watershed Management Committee |
MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica—Pineapples are growing
big and healthy for the first time on Silas Coley’s land
in Westmoreland, about an hour’s drive from this tourist
haven.
Coley began planting the iconic tropical fruit earlier this
year after joining the USAID-funded Ridge to Reef Watershed
Project, which works with farmers in the western part of Jamaica
where 90 percent of the island’s pineapples are grown.
Pineapple, because of its root structure, is a crop that
reduces erosion. It is also resistant to bad weather because
of its low height, and is highly sought after by hotels, supermarkets,
and airlines.
USAID is now helping farmers to plant pineapples because
they are more resistant to hurricanes, which destroy papaya,
banana, and other typical local crops.
Coley is one of five farmers who have offered a chunk of
their land as a pineapple growing-demonstration site. Some
81 farmers come twice a week to see how various types of pineapples—such
as “sugarloaf,” “cowboy,” and “cheese”—are
grown here on a hill with a 35 degree slope. Two rows of plants
are grown six feet apart in raised beds. In a few years, they
will be replanted so the soil does not degrade.
“Before, we had people planting pineapples all over
the place,” said Sadie Dixon of Jamaica’s Rural
Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), which is implementing
the project. “They were so thick you couldn’t pick
them, and because there were so many, they were growing small.
The market started to complain. The fruits were too small
and they weren’t sweet.”
That has changed after the new planting, irrigation, and
fertilization techniques the Ridge to Reef Watershed Project
brought in. The fruit is now bigger, sweeter, and demand is
growing.
“I had 60 acres of papayas, but after the hurricane
I’m moving to pineapples,” Coley said. “Now
we’re looking to hire people from the agriculture schools
to help around.”
Production from this pineapple harvest is expected to be
100 percent higher than before the hurricane. A new variety,
“smooth cayenne,” will be reintroduced, further
developing the local market for the fruit.
“Marketing to hotels is projected to double because
of the increased yield and quality of fruits, safeguarding
the farmers’ sustainable livelihoods,” said Yolanda
Hill, project manager with USAID. “And because of environmentally
safe farming practices, the integrity of the watershed area
is being preserved.”
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