'A' student needs help for college

Being a mother and father to her daughter was a choice that Amrine Allen had to make after her baby's father decided to leave. She decided very early that she would toil for her daughter.

She would often walk through her hometown of Font Hill and adjoining communities in St Thomas, selling various items in the hopes of making enough money to sustain her and her daughter.

"Mi use to go people yard and weed fi dem too," she said. "Mi do everything mi could to make money to send her to school."

But when Allen was diagnosed with high blood pressure, she had to cut back on strenuous activities. Things did not get better when her Achilles tendon was damaged.

"In 2015, mi go river go wash the plate them, and when mi come home me feel my heel back a bleed and me see the machete. Mi not even know how mi foot cut but the doctor tell mi seh mi lucky mi can still walk. So mi affi a give God thanks," she said.

Because of the injury, Allen was forced to slow down even more. Thankfully, she got help from some community members to educate her daughter, Amarsha Wright.

GETTING SOME HELP

"When things did good, mi use to help people. Dem seh when you do good, good follow you. So now that I can't do much some people help mi out," she said.

Allen said she is grateful that Amarsha understands their situation and tries to make things easy on them.

"She get like $300 a day for lunch, apart from her fare, and one day she tell mi seh she inna partner weh she a pay $200 a day. Mi ask her how she a go manage that and she tell mi seh 'Mommy, if you want supm you affi work pan it'," Allen told THE STAR.

Amarsha travels daily from Font Hill to Stokes Hall where her school, St Thomas Technical, is located.

"Mi affi give thanks for mi pickney because she very ambitious. From grade 7 to now she a do CXCs, she always a come first inna her class. I was planning to move her from the school because it did rough pan mi, but she tell mi seh a that deh school she pass fah and a it she a go work fah," she said.

Amarsha is currently sitting Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations. Her mother says she has expressed a desire to enrol at the St Joseph's Teachers' College next school year, where she plans to specialise in mathematics.

"She said that is what she wants to do because it seems the island is short on math teachers, and math is a problem for students and she wants to help," she said.

To achieve this dream, Allen is asking persons for a helping hand. She said that Amarsha would stop at nothing to reach her goal, and for such a brilliant child, she hopes that poverty will not set her back from contributing to the society.

If you wish to help Amarsha's dreams come true, you may contact her mother at

876-857-9035