Heartbeats of the World - Our Accomplishments

Heartbeats of the World, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation, was founded by President and CEO Dr. Karlene ChinQuee in November, 2002. In early 2003, HOW formed its educational arm affiliate, Bridging the Gap/Seeds of Hope, with Stephney Kirkpatrick as Executive Director. Bridging the Gap seeks to provide education and vocational training to young people who have been left behind in the Jamaican school system, thereby enabling them to obtain employment and have a future. HOW is presently operating five schools on the island of Jamaica.

In 2003, Bridging the Gap commenced its flagship school in Ulster Spring, Trelawny Parish, in the rural hills over an hour's travel southeast of Montego Bay. Stephney Kirkpatrick and volunteers cleared years of overgrowth from an abandoned nursing building in Ulster Spring and transformed it into the first Bridging the Gap/Seeds of Hope school. On May 17, 2004, Bridging the Gap graduated its first class of 25 students in a daylong ceremony which culminated with a dinner at the historic Glistening Waters restaurant.

In May, 2005, Minister of Parliament, Ernest Smith, on behalf of the Jamaican government, conveyed to Bridging the Gap the right to use two facilities in southwestern St. Ann Parish, a region in which the farm lands have been confiscated for bauxite mining, which has left the people without employment. The southwestern St. Ann area is populated by about 150,000 people, the majority of whom are unemployed, illiterate or barely functional. A significant portion of the population suffers from HIV/AIDS. Sixty to seventy percent of teenage girls in the area are pregnant.

In May 2006, Minister of Parliament Dr. Donald Rhodd, on behalf of the government of Jamaica, granted Bridging the Gap the right to utilize three facilities in Portland Parish, outside Port Antonio, to be used as remedial and skills training centers. Two facilities are located in Spring Bank and one is located in Fellowship. At the present time, there are no other schools in Spring Bank and Fellowship. The first school in Spring Bank is a primary school, that was closed five years ago, which is used by Bridging the Gap ( Spring Bank Training Center) to provide remedial and pre-vocational training. The second is a school that was built and never used, which will be used by Bridging the Gap as a lab for practical skills training. There are approximately 4,000 persons living in the Spring Bank area, all of whom are at or below the poverty level (50% are unemployed; 22% have received no education). There are no present plans to use the Fellowship school, which needs substantial repair.

In early 2007, the citizens of Boston in Portland Parish asked Ms. Kirkpatrick to head a newly formed school for young people in need of educational and vocational training. Almost immediately, 130 students signed up for the school.

Bridging the Gap provides the following educational, vocational and skills training:

Each school term is six months. Students who graduate go on to take positions (e.g. in the hotel industry along the north coast of Jamaica), obtain further vocational training at Heart Trust, or go to high school and (in some cases) college. Those who are unable to graduate continue in the program. Approximately 30 students graduate each six months at each school. Our students proudly wear bright red caps and gowns at the graduation ceremonies.

We have graduated six classes at Ulster Spring and a number of classes in St. Ann. In November 2006, 117 students at the Spring Bank Training Center in Portland Parish were graduated at a dinner ceremony at the Old Marina in Port Antonio. Minister of Parliament , Dr. Donald Rhodd, and Dr. Kerice Pinckney a three time recipient of the Dr. Karlene ChinQuee Future Leaders Scholarship while at the University of West Indies Medical School, addressed the graduates. At a ribbon cutting ceremony at Spring Bank Training Center on the day before graduation, a tree was planted in honor of actor and humanitarian, Paul Newman, who has provided monetary assistance to us. The ribbon cutting ceremony was followed by a valedictory service at the Wesleyan Holiness Church in Port Antonio, where students dressed in red and white marched in an awe inspiring procession, each holding a lighted candle. Hyacinth Wickham, a graduate of the Bridging the Gap facilities in St. Ann, now employed at Hedonism III, addressed the students. In early 2007 another class of 22 students from the Spring Bank Training Center traveled by bus to Falmouth and every student passed the vocational examination given by Heart Trust.

On November 27, 2007 Bridging the Gap graduated 60 students from the Spring Bank Training Center and the Boston Training Center at a dinner ceremony at Somerset Falls, outside San Antonio, following a valedictory service at the Port Antonio Methodist Church at which Dr. Charles Douglas, Executive Director, Jamaican Productivity Center and Maxine Chambers, Central Manager, Jamaican government Falmouth Heart Trust Vocational Institution, were the principal speakers.

In three and a half short years Bridging the Gap has achieved unprecedented success in providing not-for-profit education and vocational training to young Jamaicans. Five schools are educating and training students, and one is almost ready to begin operation. The rights to use five of the six schools have been donated to Heartbeats. Close to 500 students have graduated and many have obtained meaningful employment.

Heartbeats Of the World, Inc.	Heartbeats Of the World, Inc. 880 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10021 Voice (212) 861-9642 • Fax ( 212 ) 861-1401 info@howunited.org
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