ACE | American-Caribbean Experience

The Second Container is Coming!!

by American- Caribbean Experience | Oct 25, 2021 | Book A Trip, Community, Outreach

We are not sure if you remember the drama around shipping the first container to Jamaica a year and half ago, but the good news is there is NO DRAMA this time! We purchased the 40-foot container for ACE before the prices on containers more than doubled, AND we were able to gather all the previously limited supplies to fill it!

Thank you to all of you for helping us raise the funds to buy everything we needed for the ministry and farm for a while. We are really thankful for David and Pam who made our staging area, again, a huge platform for all kinds of inventory for several months.

The container pulled out of the yard on its way to Savannah, GA, to load on a ship. We are thrilled to know we will be receiving all these much-needed items. Stay tuned for the arrival. More equipment, more jobs, more reasons to give thanks!

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Marla’s Minute: Change is Good!!

by American- Caribbean Experience | Oct 25, 2021 | Book A Trip, Community, Outreach

If you’ve ever been on a volunteer trip with Marla or her staff, you will hear almost every day, “Change is good!” The rain might come and the outdoor work may stop – no problem, because ACE always has a plan B… and C…and D…and so on.

ACE is a friend to change and that’s why we believe we have survived these challenging few years. Long before COVID, we had in our Trip Guide what we called The 5 Statements of ACE.

Let’s review and see if any of these foundation quotes have been used in the past few years of change… and how these also may have helped you in your everyday life!

I’m here to serve and not to be served. This has been the real test… are we still serving God and each other versus having a pity party and wanting things to be back the way they were?
You can’t make it tough enough for me to complain. Anyone complain recently or at all this year?
I left all my expectations at home. Did you expect things to get back to normal sooner than it is? We sure did.
It’s just the way I like it! No matter what is served up, are you ready to change your outlook to enjoy the experience?
And finally, the one we love the most…
Flexibility is the key to success! My favorite tree is the palm tree. I’ve watched it bend when a hurricane hit us, and it almost touched the ground as it took the battering of the wind and the rain. After the hurricane passed, it looked sort of like me on a bad hair day… perfectly fine and all there but looking a little worn.

With each month that passes, we find we are more and more flexible to the changes that come through our doors, onto our island and through the news. It’s such a strong reminder that God is still in charge. He loves us more than we love each other and, most of all, He reminds us through unexpected change that, through Him, “it is well with our souls.” I hope you come to the same conclusion during your seasons of change, always remembering that peace comes from within, not from what surrounds us.

Oh, one last change to point out, one that we love: Galina Breeze Hotel has a new look! We decided it was time to upgrade our image at the hotel with a new brand logo and new colors. When you come down, let us know what you think of the rebranding. It’s just the way we like it… and we hope you’ll like it, too!

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School and AVC Progress Report

by American- Caribbean Experience | Oct 25, 2021 | Community, Education

Are the students attending school in Jamaica? We get this question a lot these days as most of the families in the States are dealing with the same back-and-forth issues. The answer is: it depends.

Each school is making its own decision on whether to be in session, and, in addition, the Board of Education has mandated all students be vaccinated to attend. In the world of ACE in St. Mary, like in the US, there are those who are unable or unwilling to abide by that rule. Families are trying different options, such as online schooling. Last year, ACE implemented the ACE Virtual Classroom (AVC), where we provided space, devices and help for larger groups of children to connect to their classrooms online. We’ve since reorganized this into smaller tutoring sessions with a better staff-child ratio for more productive learning. The tablets generously donated for AVC are still being put to great use by our students and educators.

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All of these learning options – in-person school, online learning, AVC, tutoring – present pros and cons as they (and we) maneuver through this “new normal.” ACE, as the physical arm of our sponsors, is assisting these students in several ways. The most important place to start, as always, is with the health and wellness of these growing students. We’ve mentioned many times on social media and in newsletters how your donations have enabled us to continue to feed and care for our sponsored families, but it doesn’t hurt to remind you – and thank you – again! This past year, ACE was very busy every quarter delivering toiletries and food to the many families that had absolutely nothing. That also included some of our staff who had more mouths than they had funds to feed them.

ACE Jamaica has had numerous conversations with professional teachers and educators from St. Mary as well as other parts of Jamaica to figure out the best way to work through what this past year of school closings, delayed learning and general frustration has done to our students. ACE called on every sponsored family to survey what was their greatest need as schools reopened. Hands down, the feedback was, “Help us with books!” Since many students are still not attending in person, we switched gears from uniforms and shoes (which were still new from last year, should a student need them) to books and supplies. The Ministry of Education was slow in deciding per grade what books each family should purchase, with many changes happening daily, so by the time we knew the curriculum, we were pressed for time. D’Vaun and Althia set out on a mission to locate and purchase hundreds of books before school began.

What a great job they did! Books were coming from everywhere – Kingston, Ocho Rios, private bookshops. In addition, parents expressed a need for workbooks for their children to write in. Hundreds of workbooks, textbooks and reading books filled our boxes and shelves, and our staff worked tirelessly to resource every book possible for the students.

ACE requires each parent to purchase at least one book (and, in some cases, two books) for their child as a buy-in. As challenging as it may be, there has to be that participation (or as we call in the States, “skin in the game”) to show we are all in this together. Playing an active role in their children’s education, these parents feel empowered and the students feel supported.

As the families came for their books, it was almost like a homecoming; everyone was all smiles and excited for a new school year, in whatever form it was! It always feels good to be part of transforming not only our communities, but our families – and especially the children — even in little ways.

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And the Help Goes On

by American- Caribbean Experience | Sep 28, 2021 | Book A Trip, Community, Outreach

ACE is known for following up on what they promise and this is a story of one of those follow ups. Pat and her sponsored boys have been living in a beautiful home her sponsors and other supporters built for her and her family several years ago. Yet, with water only running once a week in her community, Pat needed a large tank (called a RHINO in Jamaica) to gravity-feed water to her inside tank all week long. Thanks to the boys’ sponsor, a RHINO was purchased and installed!

Just because school has not been happening the way we are all used to, students and their families are still being provided for in very important ways. Thank you, sponsors, for meeting the most basic of needs.

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ACE Micro-Business: A Vision of Success

by American- Caribbean Experience | Sep 28, 2021 | Book A Trip, Community, Discipleship, Education, Outreach

How can a not-for-profit invest in for-profit businesses?

This is a question that comes up from time to time when our readers see the impressive businesses popping up through the ACE ministry in St. Mary. ACE calls them micro-businesses as they are small and only have between two and five Jamaicans working together to produce a product that can be turned into income for their families to live. The best way to answer a question like this is to go back to the beginning of ACE three decades ago and understand how we, as a non-profit, started having an impact in Jamaica.

HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

The ACE focus back then was to meet the needs of the Jamaican Nationals in our area who appeared to be in poor health, mostly uneducated, unemployed, and, for a lack of a better word, lost. In order to treat the whole person, it was important to bring in professionals to assist in wellness treatment and prevention to strengthen the body as well as to provide educational tutoring and literacy training to strengthen the mind. ACE began to seek volunteers – both local and in the U.S. and Canada – to lend their talents and expertise to our community in these areas. This worked out great through the early 90’s and 2000’s.

So many of our families began to thrive from just feeling good, both physically and mentally. Children began attending school with confidence and performing well. ACE started small groups and book clubs for parents. Volunteers hosted Vacation Bible School weeks in the summer for students and our Men and Women Conferences for adults in the winter months to focus on the other building block of health: spiritual health. Once people’s bodies were stronger and their minds sharper, they began to hear and comprehend that God loves everyone and has a purpose for their lives. They could see the changes being made in their lives, thanks to our staff and volunteers working through Him.

(Click image to scroll through Health & Well-being Gallery)

EMPLOYMENT

As our community began to mature, it became obvious that there was very little employment for a young adult or family provider. Many times, a family member would leave the country for years to work abroad in the States so they could send money home for the rest of the family members unable to work or find jobs. The separation of fathers and mothers from their children was devastating on the family dynamic. In addition, just when many young adults were gaining the confidence from their educational and spiritual growth, they felt discouraged at the dead end of job opportunities, seeing their dreams fading into the sunset.

That’s when ACE realized that part of the success of sustainability had to include a sustained economy. For ACE, this means we began to create and incubate a business from local resources, involving teaching, training, and building a product that would be appealing to customers and lucrative for buyers and sellers in the local market of produce, agriculture, or eco-tourism.

(Click image to scroll through Employment Gallery)

JOB TRAINING

One way we achieved this was through our generous ACE donors giving their time and treasure. We began to build an ACE network of “owners” who work and help create business that depends on other businesses developed within the ACE network locally. It sounds like circle talk but it really is a working economy using all the skills sets of our ACE non-profit and putting them towards profitable companies for families once the businesses can sustain themselves. And, in doing this, we are not laundering funds or side-stepping the rules of a 501(c)3. We are doing what every ministry in the 21st century should be doing: seeking to be a self-sustaining outreach program that can survive any hardship, like this current COVID experience.

(Click image to scroll through Job Training Gallery)

GALINA BREEZE HOTEL

A great example of this strategy is our Galina Breeze Hotel. Prior to 2005, ACE was paying a different hotel to house our volunteers when they came to serve with our ministry. As the story unfolds in our ACE book, The Mango Tree Gospel, God literally “gave” us an old hotel (called Trade Winds, now Galina Breeze) that required lots of work. Speed forward 16 years: the hotel (pre-COVID) employed 33 local Jamaican adults who were trained by ACE in all areas of hospitality and food management. While a non-profit provided the funds to purchase the building, the funds also hired and trained these families that had no work to be sustainable. These employees could now feed their children, afford better housing, attend their church, and eat well all while being a part of building a better community. Had it not been for ACE and our donors, the hotel might have been bought by someone else and not had the success we have enjoyed and continue to share with our volunteers today.

(Click image to scroll through Galine Breeze Gallery)

FARMING AND LIVESTOCK

Another example is our Green Life Llanrumney Farm. The hotel needed to buy food for the volunteers who come to stay. Instead of buying food from the supermarket (which we still do in part), we created smaller businesses for food production to prepare our meals at Galina Breeze. Chickens, pigs, vegetables, and fruits now come from the farm we established! Our community families work hard, learning to grow food they have never tasted before, all because of the many volunteers – the same volunteers who will eat the food at the hotel – coming down over the years to train and educate them on agriculture, farming and livestock care. In the process, relationships were built and small businesses were born. ACE calls this micro-business.

(Click image to scroll through Farming & Livestock Gallery)

We could go on and on, but the bottom line is when a non-profit focuses on the total picture of human need (mental, physical and spiritual), earning a living is part of that picture. And this is how we do it. Once ACE creates and trains, the time comes where the employees are able to sustain themselves and their business…and economy happens naturally.

Most importantly, it’s at this point, after years of personal investment, that we have earned the right to have those eternal discussions (or what ACE would call the God conversations) so everyone knows the why for all that we do. The Kingdom of Heaven is real and not just a story; our goal is to help others get there by providing opportunities to live good, honest lives, use their God-given talents, and become the best version of themselves for His sake. Through our micro-businesses and outreach programs, we feel God’s love reaching down and touching the tiniest souls in our little area of Jamaica.

Thank you for not only investing in our not-for-profit but for the many lives you have personally touched for profit.