[This post by Kevin dates back a few weeks to the time of his return to Jamaica after the London Global Voices summit, only posted now because i allowed it to sit neglected as draft.]
It was amazing. i think people should have the chance to travel and see the world and then make decisions and to where they want to go with their lives.
The Jamaica project is one that you don’t necessarily get by hearing about it just once, you have to hear it, see it and most of all you have to feel it. Before London Charley and i went to one of the prisons to take part in the finals of the quiz competition. As we sat there in the audience we just kept looking at each other, both in amazement and pleasure to see the men of the SET group taking part in this competition. The team that ended up winning was led by a young man who, when he came to us could bearly read and write. In the past few years we have seen him grow from strength to strength and now he is at a place where he is able not only to help himself, he is able to help others as well. The power of the SET group is that these men recognize that in order for them to be able to spend their time in a lab each day working and studying, learning and teaching, some amount of sacrifice has to go into it. They are also reminded that they do not need to look at paying anything back; however they are expected to pay it forward. Sounds simple, well that is bacuause it is. If each time we are given an oppertunity we look for an oppertunity to give an opperrtunity to someone else, can you imagine the kind of impact something like that could have.
Every day we look for new and better ways to help people realize just how powerful they are and that their imput is necessary to the betterment of Jamaica. If we, those of us on the outside, could see the situation as picking up a fallen soldier, oh man. The situation here will not go away if we do not act. and it is not only jamaicans which need to act. We all need to act.
Just think for a moment: Someone in prison starts to see good in himself. He will then want others to see it, and even if he doesn’t act it out he will find other ways to let others see it.
It will be good for him, and for those other inmates around him, and family and friends that come to visit him. Then it will start to affect the community that he is from and then before long the whole country will start to feel the energy, which will undoubtly spread around the world. Some would say what is the differrence with this project, why will this one work. The answer to that is also a simple one; it will work because of the energy and effort that we are putting into it.
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