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| Me |
My daughter Alana, loves the cat, but is none too pleased that many times she gets called Sabrina and sometimes I yell: Alana! when I am trying to deter the cat from using the side of the sofa as a scratching post.
I worked in media fulltime for five (5) years before making the wholesale shift to development journalism.
When I started this blog in April 2011, my home in the Caribbean; Jamaica, provided the perfect niche for my love for human interest writing to flourish as very few journalists seemed to be tackling crucial issues that are linked to development and which contributes to the advancement of Caribbean societies.
Writing about issues that prompted action and improved people’s lives give me immense satisfaction. Especially when their issues were addressed because I wrote about them and their problems.
After leaving journalism I worked as a consultant with Panos Caribbean, an organization which works to increase reporting on development issues in the Caribbean including training journalists to more effectively report on development issues, before being offered a staff position as Program Officer for Children and Youth with a focus on Children Orphaned and Made Vulnerable by AIDS and HIV/AIDS as a public health issue. I also worked as Online Content Manager and Coordinator for the Panos Caribbean's Global HIV/AIDS Program which spanned 7 countries and 5 continents.
Panos Caribbean also trained and engaged with marginalized people to improve their advocacy skills on a number of issues including Health, Human Rights, The Environment. While at Panos Caribbean I assisted with training workshops for journalists in Jamaica and the Caribbean on development issues.
My Early Years
I read ravenously while I was growing up and by grade five I had read every single book in the library at the Goodwill All Age School in St. James. The principal, who was also the librarian, was amazed that in the two years I had been at the school, I managed to borrow, read and return every single book the library possessed! When he ran out of books to lend me and I had borrowed and re-read a few of the same books a few times, he took pity on me and started lending me books from his own private book collection at home.
One of my favourite books was A Cow Called Boy, by Jamaican Writer, C. Everard Palmer. The sheer 'Caribbean-ness' of the story made me realize that my life, as it was happening to me, could be written, published and read by others.
Before the principal, Mr. Bowen, introduced me to A Cow Called Boy, I had been reading Nancy Drew and Hardy Boy books, I enjoyed them, but I didn't see myself and those around me in those books like I did in the books Mr. Palmer wrote.
Some of the other books I read in the series included; My Father Sun-Sun Johnson, The Cloud with the Silver Lining, The Wooing of Beppo Tate and The Sun Salutes You.
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| C. Everard Palmer |
I am pleased that in 2001, Mr. Palmer, who now lives in Canada but who was born and raised in Hanover, Jamaica, was honoured by his parish.
A quick search on Facebook just now (June 5, 2016) made me discover that Mr. Palmer died in June 2013. It was my hope to meet him when I moved here. I guess now that will never happen.....
Mr. Palmer, like myself, had worked a short time with the Gleaner. Read more about Hanover's honour and Mr. Palmer's reaction here: Read More about Mr. Palmer by clicking this link.
A quick search on Facebook just now (June 5, 2016) made me discover that Mr. Palmer died in June 2013. It was my hope to meet him when I moved here. I guess now that will never happen.....
Mr. Palmer, like myself, had worked a short time with the Gleaner. Read more about Hanover's honour and Mr. Palmer's reaction here: Read More about Mr. Palmer by clicking this link.
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| The front cover of the book: A Cow called Boy. |
This blog is my attempt to write about my most memorable life experiences. My life story, one blog post at a time. Posted as the memories arrive and announce themselves and not necessarily in the order or exact manner in which they actually happened.
I'm taking the long way home, one blog post at a time. Are you coming? :)
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| ME |
CLICK THIS LINK or the HOME button above to start or continue the journey with me. But make sure you have on 'good' shoes! Because Belfont road bad, BAD! LOL
#MOSES Was HER #NAME
HURRY HOME Mark Anthony Myrie aka Buju Official "... beyond this place of wrath and tears, looms but the 'Horror' of the shade..." the #FUTURE awaits... THE #POWER of lilili SOUND lililil๐๐
"Though wilt keep him in PERFECT +PEACE+ whose MIND is stayed on thee.."
Andrea Downer-Ashley is a former Staff Reporter of The Jamaica Gleaner who now lives in Toronto, Canada. She has been recognized globally for her journalism work and writing skills by international organisations including The US Department of State, United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA), Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), World Health Organisation (WHO) and in 2008 from the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre, (CAREC) for her publication on Health Care in Jamaican Prisons. In 2003 she copped the Press Association of Jamaica’s Investigative Journalist of the Year Award.
Andrea specializes in Human Interest and Development Journalism, with a special focus on human rights, gender based violence, human trafficking, youth, migrant, marginalized and displaced populations including the homeless, people at risk of being homeless and the elderly. A focus she describes as “Journalism with a heart”.
In 2013 Andrea won York University’s International Student Writing Competition in Toronto Canada. She actively volunteers with community organisations in Canada and has helped to guide the development of public policies in Canadian communities while serving on advisory committees for a number of organisations including the North Harvest Food Bank, WHIWH and York University's Student Accessibility Advocacy Organisation.
