First Annual Report 2000 – 2001
In October 1999 The Minister of Education, Youth and Culture, the Hon. Birchell Whiteman, met Liz Millman and Jacqui Morais during his visit to the UK to explore our offer of 2000 recycled computers. This was followed by a visit in December 1999 by Lascelles Lewis, Chairman of the JAMAL Foundation and President of the Jamaican Council for Adult Education, who spent time with the team in Wolverhampton, meeting the individuals who became the trustees for the new organisation and giving us support to plan possible ways forward.
The computers were pledged to us by Computer Aid, and free shipping was pledged by JP Shipping. The task we had was to collect, sort, pack and transport 2,000 computers to the docks in East London.
In 2000, 'Jamaica 2000' became a registered Charity in the UK and a registered UK company. In February 2000 the Jamaican Deputy High Commissioner, Audley Rodregues, came to Wolverhampton to meet Stephen Brooks, Chairman of the Board of Trustees and the new Board members to see the start of the computer shipments. This was filmed by the BBC and featured on Midlands Today.
The UK’s Department for Education and Training funded an exploratory visit to Jamaica for J2K Chairman, Stephen Brooks and UK Co-ordinator and Executive Secretary, Liz Millman. A high level Reception was held in Kingston by JACAE and the JAMAL Foundation to launch the project in Jamaica.
The DfID agreed to fund approx. 6 exchange visits a year, initially for 3 years, to enable adult educators from Jamaica and the UK to work together to share good practice and develop training options for trainers. The “Training the Trainers” project was key to supporting the development of the organisations work. (The DfID unexpectedly ended their support in March 2004.) This link was supported by the University of the West Indies and the University of Wolverhampton.
During the year, Jamaica 2K worked with the Centre for Rural Development at the University of Wolverhampton on the development of the Jamaica All Age Schools Project (JAASP) which was piloting new approaches to developing schools in rural areas, including the use of Family Learning to engage parents in their children’s learning and to give parents opportunities to improve their skills.
In October 2000 Liz Millman spent a month in Jamaica working on the JAASP Project and worked with colleagues from the JAMAL Foundation, The Workforce Development Consortium and the Jamaican Computer Society to developed a draft curriculum for use in community learning centres to use computers to support access to learning for adults and young people.
Stephen Brooks Chairman of Jamaica 2000
