TWENTY-TWO YEARS ago, American Friends of Jamaica (AFJ Inc.) Incorporated in New York an organisation by that name. Many who have lived, worked and served here have fallen in love with this place and want to give something back.
Last year, the AFJ Inc. pumped over US$600,000 in cash and kind into Jamaica. The contributions went into charities, hospitals and scholarships, among other areas of need. In total, the Friends have donated over US$9 million.
The AFJ, which has gone about its business quietly, hit the news last week because Lacy Wright, a former US Deputy Chief of Mission here and acting ambassador for nearly two years, has been appointed executive director. Among his many engagements in retirement, Mr. Wright also writes a regular column for The Gleaner. The chairman and chief executive officer of the AFJ is Mr. Wright's boss while he worked here, Ambassador Glen Holden, who, like so many others, has retained his connections with the island.
The organisation is supported by Americans with business, residential or other close interest in Jamaica and by some Jamaican companies in the tourism sector. Among the Friends are the company, Jockey International, and international fashion designer, Ralph Lauren, and his wife, who are winter residents here.
While this private charitable organisation continues its support for Jamaica, the Caribbean, including Jamaica has been included in the US$15 billion Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (EPAR), of the United States Government. Our ambassador in Washington, D.C., Seymour Mullings, has attributed the success of the amendment in the US Congress to sustained advocacy and the support of friends of Jamaica in Congress like Black congressman Charles Rangel, who co-sponsored the amendment with congresswoman Barbara Lee to include all of CARICOM and not just Haiti and Guyana. Ambassador Mullings said the inclusion of the Caribbean in the EPAR initiative was the product of a successful partnership between the CARICOM caucus in Washington and supportive US lawmakers.
Jamaica has good and powerful friends in high places and these friends are some of our best assets in the United States and other developed countries. We are also a natural magnet to people who love it here, despite everything.
The United States, by private and public means, continues to be a major benefactor. We have had our bad patches, as friends sometimes do, but we would be more than ungrateful not to recognise the assistance rendered in so many areas of national life by the citizens and Government of the United States.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
