Sean Rowe, a fifth form student from Fairplay, MD, launched a service initiative this year to raise funds for schools in his parents’ home country of Jamaica. The pandemic has been particularly hard on schools in rural Jamaica because many of them lack the technological resources for online learning.

It started back in November when Sean’s mother, Yvonne, traveled to Jamaica for a funeral.

“Basically, she came back home and said we need to help these schools out in getting them new technology,” Sean said. “With COVID, they’ve been impacted in a tremendous way, with having a lot of kids not able to go to school and not get a good education because most of it is online and most of them can’t afford that.”

Sean partnered with his fellow fifth formers, Catherine Charlton, Chase Dotson, CJ Cao, Asa Hammer, Peter Yang, Beatrice Imarhiagbe, Felipe Avellaneda, Bryce Kilmer, and Josh Drabczyk to launch Joining Jamaica.

The group’s goal is to raise funds to be able to support internet access and purchase devices, such as laptops, tablets, cameras, and scanners. Sean said some children have class in the street or may have an instructor come to their homes once every week or two.

“We would like to give directly to the children of the schools that are heavily impacted due to the lack of tablets and little-to-no access to the internet,” Sean said. “We want to help with their educational needs.”

Sean has many family members living in Jamaica, and he has
close ties to the two schools they chose to raise funds for—Maggoty High School and Kendal Primary School. His grandmother was a teacher at Maggoty and his aunt is the vice principal at Kendal Primary. Sean said they talk about their experience as educators frequently.

“They said that having the ability to teach these students and direct them on a great path in a country like Jamaica is the best thing they can imagine,” he said. “They want to make the experience of the other teachers similar in that way, too.”

The group set up a GoFundMe page that currently has more than $5,000 in donations. Sean is planning a trip to Jamaica in mid- June when he will visit both schools. Some of the other students involved in the fundraising initiative are also hoping to go, if traveling is safe.

You can visit the Joining Jamaica fundraising page at https://gofund. me/6567db4 or follow them on Instagram at @JoiningJamaica.