Treasure Beach has no official health centre – a matter that has been identified by the community and government stakeholders as being of urgent need. The nearest centres are in Southfield and Newell which are open only on certain days and on those days, only for specific issues. Having this health centre in Treasure Beach would allow our 3,500 residents and visitors the opportunity to receive a wider range of health care services for an extended period of time. We have just received parish council approval to build a permanent structure for the health centre at the BREDS Sports Park. We have a robust pipeline of medical professionals to call on for support and rotating attendance. Our existing and growing list of willing health care professionals just need the tools to provide affordable health care service – general and specialized – that residents and visitors need. Your donations can help to fill a critical gap in a short period of time.
Our plans are to have this health centre evolve, starting with basic health care as well as providing specialized clinics when visiting physicians offer their expertise. We are also looking to work with various medical schools’ internship programs in hopes of staffing the clinic. Over the years many organizations and doctors have approached BREDS offering to host a specialized clinic. It has always been a challenge to find a place. This very issue is what prompted us to start this project so we could have a permanent location for hosting these specialized clinics.
Breds’ Mission
Breds-Treasure Beach Foundation is a wholly volunteer-based charitable organization run by members of the community, for the benefit of the community in Treasure Beach. Breds works in partnership to effect social change in the community, especially for youth.
BREDS has been a registered non profit organisation since 1998 and was formed to improve the standard of living for the greater Treasure Beach area. BREDS has a track record of managing a wide variety of projects from managing the capital for the project to operating and implementing the project in a number of areas that benefit all ages in the community. This project will be implemented and monitored by a committee made up of members of Breds, The Treasure Beach Women’s Group & Hillsborough County Osteopathic Medical Society and other volunteers.
Currently, the program is run, supported, and overseen by a small and dedicated group of volunteers based in the US and in Treasure Beach. The majority of those involved have been there from the program’s inception, and are well known to each other and to stakeholders in Treasure Beach. They include Dr. Kenneth Webster, Dr. Omesh Singh, Dr. Sasha Noe, Dr. Miranda Giusti, Dr. Vish Pothula, Rebecca Wiersma, Celeste Anderson, Janet Nichols, Jason Henzell and a host of others. Visiting doctors, nurses and students pay their own way and generally bring in many needed supplies.
Project Summary
For more than a decade, we have been an integral part of the Treasure Beach Community Health Initiative – with local NGO, Treasure Beach Women’s Group, the Florida-based Hillsborough and Pinellas County Osteopathic Societies and the Jamaican government – which has brought hundreds of doctors, nurses and medical students to Treasure Beach, where they have provided treatment and testing to thousands of individuals, including local students. A properly equipped and staffed health centre will allow for permanent, year-round health services.
The health centre program started even before 2010 and had its beginnings in a group of volunteers from the US, who came to build a structure for the Treasure Beach Women’s Group (TBWG) after Hurricane Ivan destroyed their small building in 2004. That group, organized by Janet Nichols, started the rebuilding and with help from many local volunteers and grants written by the Peace Corps, it was completed with several small exam rooms built-in as planned. Janet then contacted nurses and physicians to began taking small groups on medical visits, a program which expanded quickly.
We became associated with Dr. Ken Webster, director of the Osteopath Society, as well as a founder of LeCom, a medical school from which we draw students. Dr. Webster brought the program forward, much aided by his connections to doctors Singh, Giusti, Noe and many others, some of whom originally came as students and returned as physicians. At the same time, the program could not have existed without literally well over a decade of time-consuming, on-the-ground work by Rebecca Wiersma of Treasure Tours and particularly Celeste Anderson of the Treasure Beach Women’s Group (TBWG and all of the TBWG’s members). We continue to be brought forward today by Dr. Vish Pothula, Jason Henzell and Minister Floyd Green, along with other stakeholders such as Principal Opal Alexander-Smith and Mrs. Norma Moxam, who heads the school board and is a director of BREDS. We are excited to continue to move forward and to be a medical resource for the people of Treasure Beach and St. Elizabeth.
Currently, the program has received the support of the Jamaican government, under the guidance of Minister Floyd Green of St. Elizabeth, to open a full-time health centre to serve the area.
The entire greater Treasure Beach Community of over 3,500 people would benefit from this program. This fishing and farming community in rural Jamaica has residents of all ages – from very young to very old. A community health centre would increase access to routine and specialized care. As the home of community tourism, Treasure Beach hosts many visitors from around the world as an important economic activity that impacts lives and livelihoods. A health centre is important for the health and safety for residents and visitors alike.
Our progress to date has been made because of several fundraising initiatives over the years. We intend to do ongoing fundraising through similar activities, social media and annual fundraising drives with all partners. When the opportunity arises for additional grants for targeted activities, we will pursue those.
As the health centre becomes more established we hope to be able to increase the level of care we are able to provide, with the ultimate goal being a 24 hour emergency clinic.
Once established, this project could be replicated in other communities and a transfer of knowledge would take place. Training opportunities will be made available by visiting doctors, nurses and health care providers. We currently work closely with the Treasure Beach Women’s Group (from which the inception of this health clinic grew), The Treasure Beach Destination Management Organisation, and are very pleased to have AFJ working with us to route financial donations coming from the US through a 501 (c) 3. Each organisation brings its strengths to the table. This health centre project has been another example of all of us working together to see this project through and share what we learn along the way with other communities throughout Jamaica.
Videographer Dave Olive’s Look Back at the Long Road to Building a Treasure Beach Health Centre
An enterprising group of local residents and outside help from friends and doctors in the US rebuilt the Treasure Beach Women’s Center after its destruction by Hurricane Isaac in 2004, and look to build a full-time health centre in Treasure Beach, Jamaica.