Jamaican Keturah Hamilton recently teamed with fellow actor Malcolm Mays for a back-to-school initiative in his south Los Angeles neighbourhood. The event was coordinated by their Keturah Hamilton and Ceola Marie foundations.

It took place on July 29 at Jim Gilliam Park in Los Angeles.

Hamilton told Observer Online that over 250 children received items donated by the Kinnect Foundation and New Balance sports firm. They included backpacks, folders, calculators, pens, pencils, highlighters, glue sticks, crayons, locks, rulers and pencil cases.

“We are hoping it will be an annual event. It was an enormous success and to see everyone come together for the greater good brings me to this quote by Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, ‘Make a career of humanity. You will make a greater person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in’,” said Hamilton.

Mays, a black American, plays Lou Lou in the Starz drama series, Power Book III: Raising Kanan. He was raised in a tough Los Angeles community beset by decades of gang violence.

Hamilton is from Spanish Town. She migrated with her family to the United States as a teenager and was raised in Chicago.

In 2015, she started the Keturah Hamilton Foundation which has done charity work in Los Angeles and Jamaica.

Hamilton has appeared in plays such as Lou Gehrig Did Not Die of Cancer, movies including Nanny and the hit television series, New Amsterdam.