Jamaica Post-Hurricane Education Support

Support students, teachers, and families in Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa

The NEET Young Innovators program is a collaboration between faculty and students from the University of Texas at Austin and several entities in Jamaica: the Negril Education Environment Trust (NEET), the University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona, and the Jamaican Ministry of Education and Youth. Together, we develop low-cost Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) lesson plans and share them with students and teachers in Jamaica through week-long STEM camps. We promote critical thinking, exploration, and environmental stewardship by centering learning around Jamaica's vast biodiversity and culture of innovation. Since 2021, we have worked with over a hundred students and teachers from across Western Jamaica, and have provided teachers with STEM resource kits that enable them to teach our lesson plans and other STEM activities more effectively in their classrooms.

Unfortunately, Western Jamaica–where NEET is based–was recently devastated by Hurricane Melissa, which made landfall as a Category 5 storm. Many families lost everything. NEET’s resource center, which provides computer and internet access to the community, sustained significant damage, as did many local schools. The hurricane has caused significant trauma to the citizens of Jamaica and severe disruptions to education. The goal of this hornraiser is to help our collaborators in Western Jamaica rebuild and to provide additional support to educators, students, and their families.

By donating to this effort, you are contributing to the education of vulnerable children and providing stability during a time of significant uncertainty. A donation is also an investment in community resilience and initiatives that foster environmental stewardship in a globally important biodiversity hotspot.