WHEN Hurricane Melissa struck Jamaica last October, the damage to Jhada McKie’s family home forced a heartbreaking choice: Effect emergency repairs or pay for college. With her funds for tuition diverted to repairs, McKie’s dream of a university degree was suddenly plunged into jeopardy.

A third-year student at Sam Sharpe Teachers’ College in St James, McKie is pursuing a Bachelor of Education with a major in French. She explained that in order to complete the degree, all participants are required to travel to France for three months as part of an immersion programme — a costly venture totalling €8,000 to cover travel expenses and accommodations.

A devout member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, McKie said she’s had little luck in the job market, facing discrimination due to her refusal to work on Saturdays, in observance of the Sabbath.

The 18-year-old now finds herself relying on a GoFundMe campaign to help raise the needed funds. The youngster is appealing to Jamaicans to donate and make her dream possible.

“It would mean everything to me because it would actually make me one step closer to accomplishing my dream, which is being a French teacher and being fluent in the language. I love languages, and I love how I can make others feel passionate about it. Even in my household, the children, whenever they hear me speak in French they just get so lively, and they get excited.

“You don’t really get that reaction from Spanish, in my opinion, so I just think there’s something about French that really fits me well. I could use that to my abilities to impact people, to let them see the opportunities that come with learning a language and how fun it can be,” Mckie told the Jamaica Observer.

The roof of Jhada McKie’s home in Hanover was damaged during the passage of Hurricane Melissa on October 28, 2025. 

She said the completion of her degree is also a dream shared by her mother. A poultry farmer and an attendant at a primary school in St James, Mckie said her mother did not have the opportunity to access higher education but she’s worked tirelessly to ensure her children’s reality was different.

The teen shared that her mother designated a bank account specifically for saving towards that dream, but when the catastrophic hurricane swept across the south-western section of Jamaica on October 28, 2025 the damage to their home in Hanover saw that dream gradually fade with each payment for repairs.

“I lost my roof, and my mother lost her chicken coop…which was a source of income for us. It took a while to get it fixed because we didn’t really get any assistance from the Government…The [section of the] roof [covering] my mother’s room got damaged; it was gone completely. And [the section of the] roof [for my room] got damaged as well. There was a coconut tree that fell into my room, and there was water in the room everywhere, and most of the clothes got damaged, and medication got damaged as well,” McKie recounted.

“It was very difficult. I felt bad because I didn’t want to be the reason why we were uncomfortable, but at the same time she [her mother] was telling me I should not worry about it and that I should just focus on school. But even though she was saying that, I still thought about it,” Mckie told the Sunday Observer.

The French teacher hopeful said soon after the storm passed she began baking puddings to sell at church in hopes of raising the needed funds. She then tried hosting a cake sale but had little success when transportation issues left her with several undelivered cakes. She said she pivoted again and sold the cakes along the roadside and at school but even then, the money was not enough.

After a few weeks of job searching, McKie said she finally got a call to interview for a position for which her knowledge of a second language would be an asset. However, hope quickly turned to despair when she shared in the interview that she is a devout Adventist and could not work on Saturdays.

According to the teenager, she was told that she had to choose between her faith and the job, and the interviewer began quoting scriptures to persuade her to choose the job.

Jhada McKie points to a coconut tree that destroyed a section of the roof above her bedroom during the passage of Hurricane Melissa on October 28, 2025.  

“She was basically disregarding everything I believe…I was panicking in the moment and I was very nervous, and I was so anxious. I felt like the room was caving in on me and that I was being attacked. It didn’t really feel like a safe space, and after the interview I started to question myself. I was wondering if I was doing the right thing and if I made the right choice…all of these questions were going through my mind, and I didn’t really know what to think,” recounted Mckie.

“I was still applying to other places but nobody was reaching out. I thought I was making a sacrifice for Him [God] and then I was saying, ‘God, I stood up for you; why are you not standing up for me right now?’ It kind of felt like what I was doing was in vain, but I was still trying to keep hope alive, and in the end I kept on praying, and I kept asking God to give me an answer,” she told the Sunday Observer.

Mckie said a GoFundMe campaign was later presented as the answer to her prayers, a suggestion she initially shot down because of her pride but later accepted. The account has since raised US$305, which is a drop in the bucket compared to her target, but she is confident that with the help of other Jamaicans she can raise the funds to complete her degree.

She urged young Jamaicans to always stand up for their faith, expressing confidence that God will see her though this difficult period.

“Don’t think anything is impossible. Whatever you dream of and whatever you want, go for it and just have faith that it will work out,” she encouraged.

If you’d like to contribute to her fund-raiser, her GoFundMe campaign can be found here:https://www.gofundme.com/f/france-immersion-trip-2026