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Jamaica-born consultant brings passion for helping children back to homeland

Published:Monday | March 11, 2024 | 12:08 AMAinsworth Morris/Staff Reporter
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Gladstone Taylor/Multimedia Photo Editor Ricardo Nugent gets his blood pressure checked by Ashley Ross (left), a nursing student of Rutgers University in the United States inside The Gleaner Company Car Park at the intersection of North and East streets y
Gladstone Taylor/Multimedia Photo Editor Ricardo Nugent gets his blood pressure checked by Ashley Ross (left), a nursing student of Rutgers University in the United States inside The Gleaner Company Car Park at the intersection of North and East streets yesterday. Ross is one of a contingent of volunteers from Distinctly Guided LLC, Collaboration over Competition and Pan African Y.C.
Members of the Eagles Marching Band compete in a friendly skipping competition during the community outreach event held at the Gleaner Company (Media) Limited’s North Street car park yesterday.
Gladstone Taylor
Members of the Eagles Marching Band compete in a friendly skipping competition during the community outreach event held at the Gleaner Company (Media) Limited’s North Street car park yesterday.
Tyra Dillon sits on the shoulders of her mom, Sasha-Gaye Ferguson, during the community outreach event held at the Gleaner Company (Media) Limited’s North Street parking lot yesterday.
Gladstone Taylor
Tyra Dillon sits on the shoulders of her mom, Sasha-Gaye Ferguson, during the community outreach event held at the Gleaner Company (Media) Limited’s North Street parking lot yesterday.
Donnette Green, of Distinctly Guided LLC, at the community outreach event held at the Gleaner Company (Media) Limited’s North Street car park yesterday.
Gladstone Taylor
Donnette Green, of Distinctly Guided LLC, at the community outreach event held at the Gleaner Company (Media) Limited’s North Street car park yesterday.
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Four years ago, after Dr Donnette Green, CEO and chief consultant for Distinctly Guided LLC in New Jersey, completed her doctorate, one thing rested heavily on her mind. That was the people in her homeland, Jamaica – more specifically downtown – who are in dire need.

Green, who did her dissertation on Kingstonians’ perspective on corporal punishment, saw that further fuel her desire to partner with other like-minded Americans, raise funds, buy supplies, and return to Jamaica for days’ worth of outreach sessions.

“It was one of the things that when I got my doctorate degree, I said that I wanted to give back to the country that I came from. I did my dissertation on a Kingstonian parent’s perspective on corporal punishment as a means of discipline, and I just felt like parents needed to be able to engage with their children in different ways, and weren’t raised that way ... and it came about from that,” Green, whose company works with American school districts, parents, community stakeholders, government agencies, and corporations by providing knowledge transfer and solutions through coaching, training, and consultancy services, told The Gleaner.

Green, in partnership with her friends, Krishna Garlic, Cheryl Abdur, and LaGretta Stephens, who are with Collaboration over Competition, has been raising funds in the United States and returning to Jamaica over the past three years. On Sunday, one of their treat sessions took place in the parking lot across the road from The Gleaner.

“It’s just a passion of mine, and I met with Cheryl and Krishna, and they had the same passion, and we did the same thing, and we all had the same vision, and we brought it to fruition,” Green explained.

“Every child that came here today got a soccer ball, book bag, and all of those things. Additionally, we have students from Rutgers University, and this is the first year we’re doing this actual location. The last two years we have been doing Olympic Gardens and then my dad and his brothers grew up in this community and became jealous, and said, ‘How are you coming to Jamaica every year and doing this and you’re not doing Pan African, and you were a little Pan African baby on the pillow?’ So then we raised money to do this as well,” she said.

The group also did an Olympic Gardens treat on Saturday. Today, they will also visit Seaward Primary School and present to the grade-two students.

“We will read books to them. I have a mantra back in New Jersey that reading is knowledge and knowledge is power, so we read to the students as well there, and we’re going to the Islamic School on South Camp Road as well,” she said.

Also assisting in making the event a success was the National Healthcare Enhancement Foundation.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com