There is no gainsaying that children and adolescents in Jamaica live under significant stress, often existing in the proximity of violence and other forms of abuse –  or being the victims of it.

Statistics, from two years back, point to some improvement. Jamaica’s Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) reported that it received 13,531 reports for the period 2023-24, of which 6,314 were distress calls to the child abuse reporting helpline, 211. In comparison, in the 13-month period between January 2019 and December 2020, forty-three thousand three hundred and twelve incidents of child abuse were recorded by the agency – an astonishing average of 60 reports a day.

The consequences of this exposure, as Olga Isaza, the representative in Jamaica for the UN’s children’s organisation, UNICEF, has noted, include behavioural problems; negative effects on learning; and long-term mental-health issues.