CHEVELLE, eight; Vannessa, five; and Sidon, three, had been orphaned after the death of their 26-year-old mother Petunia Allwood in Jamaica. Grandmother Beverly Tomlinson wondered desperately how she would manage to bring them up in the hillside community of Gordon District near the fishing village of Whitehouse.

Her rare income came from small bits of farming produce and the occasional catches landed by fisherman husband George.

Ms Beverly, as she is affectionately known, scratched a day-to-day existence but vowed that the girls would attend school every day and have a home-cooked meal. Chevelle is now 16 on the final stretch of a five-year scholarship and hopes to become a teacher. Her promise was spotted at age 12 by Sandals staff who ‘adopted’ her after she gained a high school place.

She is receiving grants through the company’s Community Scholarship Programme — it has put hundreds of less fortunate students through education since 1998 — and which now comes under the umbrella of The Sandals Foundation launched last year.

“This touching example reflects exactly our ambitions and what the Foundation represents — to try to make a person’s situation better,” says Adam Stewart, CEO Sandals Resorts International. “The Foundation will make a real difference in the Caribbean, shaping futures and lifting spirits, and will enable us to harness actively all our resources and brand power as a company to increase significantly our contributions to benefit people and communities most in need.”

Sandals has 10,000 employees spread over 20 properties across the Caribbean.

“By 2011 we will increase our current annual US$11 million commitment,” adds Stewart. “Our resources, partnerships and awareness will be used in three broad categories — community, education and environment.”

Ms Beverly and her three grandchildren are an evocative illustration of that philanthropic approach. Their past hardships have been significantly lifted. Vanessa, now 13, has also passed her exam for high school. All the girls share a wardrobe of clothes and smart uniforms.

“Sometimes they would have to get up extra early to walk more than five miles to school if there were no funds for transport,” says Ms Beverly, whose husband died last year. “It was either that or go without lunch money. Raising that was sometimes a real challenge. Things weren’t easy.”

Last year, extra support dropped on the family’s doorstep.

Sandals guests, Canadian couple Barry Heinrich and Sue Drader, generously set up a bursary for Chevelle; provided a solar panel unit that gives the girls light for homework; began a weekly stipend to offset school expenses and donated the needed funds to cover full electrical wiring installation and the completion of an extra room.

“When we met Ms Beverly and Chevelle and learned of their circumstances we immediately decided what we wanted to do,” says Drader. “Since returning home we have kept in constant contact with the Foundation and they update us on the family’s needs.

“Kudos to everyone associated with the Foundation for not just wanting to make a better world but doing so,” adds Drader who declares her love for Jamaica and vows that she and Heinrich will return to the island this year.

“I’m so grateful to everybody for the improvement in our living standards,” says Chevelle. “It makes it so much easier to focus on obtaining good marks.”

Running parallel to this heartening story is the changed fortune about to revolutionise the face of the three girls’ first school — Culloden Early Childhood Institution — which has never had a permanent site since it opened in 1974. Its inspirational head is Janet Briggs.

Culloden has relied on a string of helpful landowners to give it temporary accommodation, being forced to relocate year to year. That hasn’t stopped the school — which has up to 180 children aged from three to six — establishing an enviable reputation. At the moment, though, the classes are housed in an unfinished building and the children are at the mercy of the elements — particularly when it rains.

The owners want the building back for their own use. The Sandals Foundation has stepped in to fill the gap, committing to erecting the Caribbean’s first environmentally friendly school — one which Culloden can call its own.

The ground breaking building began in October and the school is expected to open before September this year.

“This is the start of the dream I’ve had since I became principal 10 years ago,” says Briggs. “The new school will have six classrooms, a small cafeteria, a library and a playground all with the safety standards of Jamaican Government early childhood compliance.

“The most difficult thing to date has been the uncertainty from year to year; not being able to have a sense of permanency for the students and not knowing whether we will have to move or ultimately close down. Despite everything, we have managed to maintain standards and ex-pupils have gone on to become educators and well-respected and accomplished business figures, giving back positively to the Jamaican society,” she says.

“The school will be very environmentally friendly with the building utilising recycled material. It will install high efficiency lighting but where possible have light shelves to make use of natural light. It will also be built to the prevailing winds to allow natural air flow. It will capture and re-use rainwater. Students will learn and be involved in recycling,” adds Briggs.

“We have been associated with Sandals for four years. It has worked alongside my teachers, paid for repairs, given supplies for staff and pupils, staged fun reading sessions, involved and encouraged the children in environment issues. Now there are Sesame Street workshop programmes.”

The Sandals Foundation team spearheaded a wide-ranging schedule last year from:

* basketball camp to book drives

* health clinics to marine sanctuaries

* recycling centre to ‘VolunTourism’

* literacy to Christmas toy drive

The Foundation’s healthcare and education priorities are in strong evidence with 27,000 Jamaicans expected to benefit this year.

* 1,000 Smiles Dental Project has 175 volunteers — dentists, hygienists, assistants and other helpers — and 17,000-plus should receive free care;

* The iCare Vision Project brings 22 volunteer opticians seeing over 1,800 patients in 2009, its pilot year. More than 3,000 nearly-new spectacles have been collected;

* Forty teachers and specialists in IT computing, sports, arts, music are working on the Great Shape! SuperKids Literacy Project which will cover 8,000 students across seven schools;

* 10,000 new books were donated by non-profit USA partner First Book;

* 30 refurbished and networked computers come from Sandals.

“The Foundation works tirelessly in towns and neighbourhoods where resorts are located and we participate in more than 200 community outreach programmes around the Caribbean,” says senior co-ordinator Heidi Clarke.

“Our resort Foundation teams stay in touch and advise what we should support. We have put up computer labs, community centres, developed training/mentoring programmes. We research green energy, nurture senior citizens, encourage youth through sport, help local farmers, [and] create HIV/AIDS awareness programmes.”

— A slightly edited reprint from Spotlight magazine