|
Economic
Development
Starfish
Oils - Rising Star
Jamaica's economy has
been either stagnant or in decline for the last five years. And forecasts
suggest there is little to cheer about for the next few years. So it takes
a special person to have the vision, the will and the creative aggression
to bring an entrepreneurial dream through to reality in such an economic
climate. Sharon McConnell-Cooke, of Starfish Oils, is such a person. So,
too, must be her business partner and husband, Kynan Cooke.
With the technical
assistance made available through USAID's Small Business Export Development
program (SBED) to foster improved business skills, greater efficiency, improved
access to export markets, trade shows and low-cost finance for small businesses,
Sharon's early aspiration of creating a "lickle Jamaica hippy ting"
has grown into developing and managing a thriving enterprise.
Launched in 1995, Starfish
Oils now provides a rapidly expanding and unmistakably Jamaican package
of aromatherapy oils, candles and handmade soaps. Its environmentally friendly
gift and "feel good" body care products are based on natural materials:
bamboo, coconut shells, and Blue Mountain Coffee. Except for most of the
oils, it's all sourced in Jamaica. Although Sharon knew from interest expressed
at trade shows that the market was ready for the product and that the market
stretched across the West Indies to the US and Europe, she faced a barrage
of challenges typical of the intuitive entrepreneur with a good product
struggling in a high-risk economy: the high cost of loans; safe shipment
to US; financing travel to trade shows; sourcing competitive suppliers;
undeveloped business management skills and many others.
SBED selected Starfish
Oils (one of ten identified by SBED) as a young company with a future, and
with specific needs. Through the program, Starfish Oils received guidance
on production and product line identity, technical assistance on basic business
and office management skills, and help in identifying trade shows, finding
low-cost raw materials, and accessing a virtually interest-free $350,000
loan and a $35,000 World Bank loan.
With 10 products now
on sale, export sales at 40% of total sales for this year and expected to
rise to 60% over the next 12 months, a first year in profit, a web site
ready to run and a new Bob Marley commemorative product being developed,
Starfish Oils is burgeoning with talent, activity and product. Hopefully,
one of many, as USAID's Small Business Export Development initiative continues
to help prepare small Jamaican businesses to face the challenges of competition
in the global market.
Environment
Negril
Cabins gets "green"
Negril Cabins Resort
is a trendsetter. Tucked away in the "bush" behind the all-inclusive giants
Sandals and Grand Lido at Bloody Bay, it is everything you could wish a
family hotel in paradise to be. But, in fact, it's even better than that.
It's a beacon to a glittering future in the tourist industry, showcasing
how both the industry and concern for the environment can be married to
a common and profitable aim.
Strip away the delightful
and homely long cabin feel in its lush Caribbean setting and you will find
a small hotel competing successfully with the big boys and enjoying an envied
reputation of an environmentally sound business. And others are following.
Even the larger hotels have been influenced to take on the "greening" initiative
with Sandals Resorts International leading the way.
Jamaica has an unfortunate
record for exploiting its riches with little regard for the environment.
Over-exploitation of its coastal waters and mountain forests have degraded
these prized resources beyond the point of inactive concern. As a step in
both developing the tourist trade along new eco-friendly lines and introducing
more efficient business practices, USAID introduced the EAST (environmental
audits for sustainable tourism) program. The aim is to encourage the tourist
industry in Jamaica to participate in the latest eco-awareness developments
and also to play its part locally in slowing down the rate of degradation
by promoting greater awareness of the environment. And, of course, to maximize
profits without harming the environment!
As participants, Negril
Cabins were environmentally audited, covering use of water, treatment of
waste water, use of energy, treatment of solid waste and use of chemicals.
The participating technical assistance team examined the operational systems
at the hotel and assessed the management's attitude to environmental issues.
More efficient equipment was installed along with an environmental management
system. As a result of the EAST program, not only did Negril Cabins see
a
30% reduction in operating
costs, but it also won the first and much prized Green Globe Certification,
a certification introduced in 1998 and supported by 80 participating countries
to promote sound environmental practices in the tourist industry. In fact,
Negril Cabins was also the first in the West Indies to be re-certified,
and subsequently won the prestigious 1999 Caribbean Hotel Association's
Environmental Hotel of the year. More importantly, its success, and the
success of the EAST program, has established a new and greener way of thinking
for the industry. And it's generating profits! No wonder that from Egypt
to Brazil, other tourist hotels are rushing to join in.
Health
Fighting
AIDS for Joseph
Of all current global
viruses identified by the medical world, AIDS generates the most widespread
fear and misunderstanding - and with good reason. In the first 10 years
of this 21st century, more people will die from AIDS related diseases than
the total number of people lost in the two great wars of the 20th century.
The World Health Organization (WHO) ranks the Caribbean Basin second behind
the sub-Saharan region of Africa with the worst epidemic.
Jamaica had 892 new
AIDS cases in 1999, 38.8% up on the previous year. Seventy of those new
cases were children. There is no treatment for AIDS in Jamaica - it is too
expensive - but there are sound and effective prevention strategies which
could eliminate perinatal transmission. Jamaica is not the worst hit in
the Caribbean. But it is preparing for the worst. Through USAID's AIDS/STD
Prevention and Control Program, invaluable medical, educational and administrative
skills in both the epidemiology unit at the Ministry of Health and in the
community have been protected and strengthened, and people of all ages have
been shown how they can protect themselves. In fact, the sensitive area
of personal and community counseling is a vital part of the program where
rural and inner city communities can be educated on coping with, and caring
for, AIDS sufferers.
Joseph is an AIDS victim,
and he's also been the catalyst for some important developments in his community.
Aged 5, he is HIV positive, carrying the AIDS virus. His parents died of
AIDS. He is cared for by his aunt and uncle in rural St Catherine and goes
to school on his good days, when he is not suffering from his AIDS related
symptoms. Or, when he was allowed to go to school . . . All the local community
knew that his parents had died from AIDS, and such was the feeling of fear
and outrage in the community that parents threatened to withdraw their children
from school unless Joseph was kept at home. The caring relatives were also
ostracized.
One component of the
AIDS/STD Prevention and Control Project, the Behavior Change Communication
(BCC), was activated. Community educators in the parish, trained through
USAID funding, conducted community meetings and house-to-house sensitization
visits specifically aiming to educate the community on the subject of AIDS
and change their attitude from a position of aggressive victimization to
one of understanding and tolerance. The process worked. Joseph is back at
school - on his good days - and he and his relatives can once more take
their places in the community without angry denunciation.
But the work is not
yet complete. Not everyone in the community is convinced that Joseph can
safely go to school without endangering the health of the other children,
so for the moment the team's work remains unfinished. With such a massive
threat to a nation's health and prosperity, it is unlikely that educational
community programs, such as the one that benefited Joseph and his relatives,
could be anything less than permanent.
Education
Harry
According to UNICEF's
1999 publication, Changing the Future of Jamaica's Children, an estimated
7,500 children currently live on the streets of Jamaica enduring a grim
and angry existence hustling for a living. Many others live "off the street"
- perhaps at home or with relatives - but work on the street during the
day. Most of the street kids are disenfranchized in some way - no home,
no parents, no education, no sustainable future. Harry was one of these.
The street was both home, workplace and war zone.
Now aged 19, he had
been on the streets since he was seven emerging in Montego Bay after running
away from the poverty and deprivation of his family home in St Elizabeth.
Talk to any of the street kids, and the story is about the same. The essential
motivating factor for fleeing the home is not the glamour of life on the
strip - for this is a very desperate hardship - but the urge to find something
better. Instead, Harry had to beg for money or food, slept rough on the
street on his cardboard bed, survived fights, jail, violent juvenile institutions
and acid burns from rival street gangs.
Since 1997 the USAID
program, Uplifting Adolescents, has provided a window of opportunity for
adolescents like Harry. A USAID funded non-government organization (NGO),
The Western Society for the Upliftment of Street Children in Montego Bay
has, as hoped by Minister for Social Services Portia Simpson when she launched
the NGO, "taken them off the street, given them a basic education, some
love and affection, some care." Expertise in both counseling and education
has provided children like Harry with vital life skills of communication,
socialization and conflict resolution - it has given them self-confidence,
shown them they have a future and a place in society - given them some hope.
Harry heard about Western
Society on the street. Tested by their educational specialists, he registered
as functionally illiterate - unable to read or write. The educational program
offered Harry remedial education in English, Maths, Social Studies, and
Science, with a separate component for Personal and Family Development and
Conflict Resolution provided by USAID. Two and a half years after starting
the program, Harry can read, he is numerate, he has reached the highest
level on the program, his anger has gone, and he is well respected by friends
and teachers. He currently has a temporary job cleaning cars which helps
sustain him while he completes the course. And when he does that, he will
have achieved the necessary qualifications to train as a mechanic - a dream
coming true!
Harry is understandably
proud of the room he now rents, paid for out of his own earnings, and feels
he is finding a place in society. He encourages others to join the center,
and sees himself as a willing and able counselor, someone who can have an
impact on kids of the same background through the Western Society NGO. As
one of the three coaches in their football team, the other kids look to
him for guidance and support. He feels he has achieved a lot … so far …
and recognizes just how far the program has brought him. "Dem mek wi
feel good, sah!" (They make us feel good, Sir!)
In the three years
since Uplifting Adolescents was initiated, 15,000 adolescents have passed
through the program with 8,000 currently involved. With 14,000 10-14 year-olds
not enrolled at school and an additional 4,000 10-18 year-olds dropping
out of the state school system every year and in need of support, the demands
on the Uplifting Adolescent Program and its participating NGOs are high.
But if the program can have such an impact on a young life such as Harry's,
then it is worth examining how aspects of its remedial education program
can be introduced into the mainstream educational system. With the introduction
of USAID's New Horizons program which focuses on the numeracy and literacy
skills of primary school children, we can help reduce the number of "Harrys"
and secure their place in school rather than on the street.
Home
| USAID web site | OFDA/Caribbean
| U.S. Embassy Jamaica
| Contacts | Return
to top
|
