Fundamentals For Change

Fundamentals for Change (FFC) is a volunteer-run organization that aims to create positive change in impoverished Jamaican communities through education, community empowerment and play. Through creative and locally driven means, these three fundamental building blocks are creating positive change. FFC allows communities burdened with the stresses and constraints of poverty, to create moments that build pride and foster empowerment, to which new futures will unfold. We take great pride in our financial efficiency, our accountability to donors, and our transparency. We strive to use every dollar contributed as efficiently and effectively as possible. FFC currently runs off a small but dedicated network of volunteers. This enables us to have very little overhead costs, therefore allowing as much as the money donated go straight back to the communities we support. Currently we are focusing our efforts in Kingston, Jamaica; specifically in the inner-city of Riverton Meadows. However, it does not resemble a meadow at all. Riverton is a community of approximately residents who make their livelihood and homes along the edges of the Kingston landfill. FFC partners with the Riverton Early Education Centre (REEC) run by the St. Patrick's Foundation. Ayako, our President and Founder, and Tammy Hall, our Treasurer, first volunteered in Jamaica over 16 years ago, in The REEC is a school funded almost entirely on private donations with a primary focus of teaching children from the ages of 3 to 6. It also hosts a nursery, a library, a health clinic a reading and homework centre and a youth leadership club. This beacon of hope lays deep in one of Jamaica's poorest and most neglected neighborhoods. By spending time within this often misunderstood community, Turnbull was able to build strong relationships within it. This first hand relationship enables FFC to believe in the integrity of the school and be confident in its accountability.