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Friends United Meeting |
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Global Ministries
Jamaica Yearly Meeting
Friends United Meeting has ministered in Jamaica for more than 100 years.
Evi Sharpless, of Iowa Yearly Meeting, was the missionary who first established
a relationship between North 
American Friends and Jamaica, in 1881. Since that time
schools, homes for children, and local meetings were established to provide
for the physical and spiritual needs of Jamaicans.
Jamaica Yearly Meeting was established and convened its inaugural yearly meeting sessions on April 15, 1941. Today, three Friends institutions which continue to be a high priority are the Swift Purscell Boys Home and Lyndale Girls Home in Highgate and Happy Grove High School in Hector's River, Jamaica.
New Opportunities
Swift Purscell Boys Home and Lyndale Girls Home management is under the oversight of Friends Education Council (FEC), appointed by Jamaica Yearly Meeting. FUM also appoints a member to this Council. While ownership remains in the hands of Jamaica Yearly Meeting, a partnership between FUM and JYM offers the opportunity for FUM to provide personnel to administer the two institutions for a limited period of time.
Reorganization of the Council and its responsibilities will strengthen the role of management and help to make needed changes in the operation of the homes. The critical issues that need to be addressed are the upgrading of the homes, improvement of the physical environment, and reestablishment of relationships between the homes and their supporters.