KINGSTON, Jamaica — Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Olivia Grange and the chairman of the Jamaica National Commission for UNESCO have announced that the Women’s Centre of Jamaica Foundation has won the prestigious UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education.

According to a release from Grange’s ministry, the US$50,000 prize honours the outstanding contribution of individuals, institutions and organisations engaged in girls’ and women’s education.

It also showcases successful projects that improve and promote the educational prospects of girls and women and in turn, the quality of their lives.

Grange said the Women’s Centre of Jamaica Foundation, which helps pregnant teenagers to continue their education through day schools at its locations across the country, “won the prize for its tremendous work to help adolescent mothers to continue their education.”

“We are very proud to be receiving this award for education at the Women’s Centre of Jamaica Foundation.

“The Women’s Centre was started 40 years ago with this mandate — to help pregnant teenagers to continue their education thereby increasing their job prospects and equipping them with the tools to look after their children and to become good parents, she continued.

Grange congratulated the team at the Women’s Centre, past and present, who she said, have through kindness, love and care given pregnant teenagers this opportunity to continue their education and to build successful lives.

“This award is a well-deserved recognition of the hard work over the last four decades,” she further stated.

The Women’s Centre of Jamaica Foundation is one of two recipients of the award for 2018. The prize, which is funded by the Government of the People’s Republic of China, was first awarded by UNESCO in 2016.

The prize will be presented during the 205th Session of the UNESCO Executive Board in Paris, France in October.