Glenda Drummond, executive director of Western Society for the Upliftment of Children. - Mark Titus

One student loves school so much that she has gone the extra mile to ensure that her school, which is facing financial problems, stays open.

Tameika Melbourne, a 16-year-old student of the Western Society for the Upliftment of Children (WSUC) in St. James, is begging the public to help them build a new school building.

The school is funded by USAID but the funding from that agency has been reduced, and now the school is finding it difficult to meet their monthly expenses. "(We are just living) from hand-to-mouth. A day at a time," Glenda Drummond, executive director of the school told THE STAR.

Children's fund

The school, which has enrolled 229 students, started in April 1997, and came about because of a need to continue the programmes started by the Save the Children's Fund, focuses on at-risk children. "My school is mostly attended by children who are slow learners, expelled or dropped out because of pregnancy," Melbourne's letter to THE STAR said.

Last year the school, through a 25-year lease agreement, received a property on Humber Avenue in Montego Bay from the Ministry of Lands, and was set to receive a $15 million grant to construct the buildings there, but due to "bureaucracy" the funding was used up.

Melbourne wrote her letter as an entry in the Win A Christopher Martin Concert competition. The competition sought to give a needy school the concert as a way to raise money.

"We are really in need of your help, so please understand. If it had not been for my school 90 per cent of the students here would have been out on the street," Melbourne further pleaded in her letter. "We really need your help in this 'please' or else my classmates, friends and playmates will be abandoned. I really love my school and teachers and I don't want my school to be closed."

The school has held a number of fund-raising activities to raise the money for themselves, the most recent being Miss WSCU. However, Mrs. Drummond said that they only managed to break even. She notes, however, that they are currently discussing holding another fund-raiser later this year.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Drummond has be-come proactive and has turned to begging to get the necessary materials and money needed to construct some of the buildings, so that the school can move and ultimately reduce some of its operational costs. "We begging all over and we hope to put up some of the buildings so we can move some of our operations there and cut down on the rent," she said.

Their rent is currently $47,600 and recently someone in Montego Bay committed to pay $35,000 of the rent for the next year.

Anyone wishing to help the school can make contributions, cash or materials, to its account at the West Gate Branch of Scotiabank with account number 6036, or call Mrs. Drummond at 952-337.