GoodHeart | Foga Road High’s hygiene line secures third VM Enrich Expo win

For the third consecutive year, Foga Road High School has won the VM Enrich Social Enterprise in Secondary Schools Expo, securing $150,000 in seed funding for its venture, ‘Schoolaz Hand Shield’.

The Clarendon-based school emerged top among six schools that pitched their social enterprise projects on Thursday at The Summit in St Andrew. Foga Road’s Schoolaz Hand Shield project, which began with the production of organic hand sanitizers in 2024, has now expanded to include hand soaps, all targeted at improving access to affordable, skin-friendly hygiene products within their school and surrounding community.

“The problem which inspired us was that we noticed that students were not really practising proper handwashing hygiene, and there were a lot of harmful soaps that were causing skin irritation so we decided to start with hand sanitisers with natural ingredients and now, this year, we expanded to making hand soaps,” said Taveene Feron, student at the Foga Road High School.

The products are made from natural ingredients, including fever grass and charcoal and are sold to students and individuals in the surrounding community.

Stephan Simpson, a teacher at Foga Road High School, explained that, “A lot of the students started out being shy and not knowing anything about business, and now their entrepreneurial skills are being developed, and they [have] started to think like entrepreneurs. If they see an idea, they will bring it to the facilitators, and whenever they hear about school events being held, they are always aiming to make products to sell there.”

He added that the students have grown in their passion for learning new skills, developing project ideas, and building confidence.

The students plan to explore shampoos and lotions for the next school year.

SECOND PLACE

Taking second place was Hampton School in St Elizabeth, which received $100,000 to further develop its project ‘Treasured Trash’. Through the initiative, students upcycle plastic bottles, caps and glass into jewellery and décor items, reducing waste while generating income.

Terrica Thompson, teacher at Hampton School, explained the genesis of the project.

“We came up with the idea to collect plastic bottles and send them to Recycling Partners of Jamaica, but then the club advisor said, why not make something out of the bottles, so we went back to the drawing board and researched items that could be made, and we tried them out along with the students,” she said. They eventually expanded to glass bottles and corks, which they used to create items such as key rings, earrings and vases.

“We are now looking into how we can re-purpose more of the things we throw away,” Thompson added.

Like Foga Road, the Hampton students market their products for sale to the school and the surrounding community, with the profits being contributed to the school. It’s Hampton’s first year participating in the programme, and according to the club’s president, Destiny Foster, the students are excited to continue.

“We are very happy to have placed second. While there have been challenges, we continue to overcome them and remain dedicated to our mission. We will continue to push forward and develop our project further, and hope to come back next year and possibly place first at that time,” Foster said.

Beyond the top two, the expo featured four other community-driven projects. St Elizabeth Technical High School placed third, earning $75,000 for a project to purify and bottle water from its well for sale, with proceeds going toward repairing the school’s gymnasium.

Other participants included Enid Bennett High School in St Catherine with ‘Tomato Gold’, which addresses market gluts by turning tomatoes into value-added products such as chutney, jam and juice; the Salvation Army School for the Blind in Kingston with ‘Vision in Harmony’, which uses music for social and psychological development; and Wycliffe Martin High School in St Mary with ‘Bloom and Breeze’, a plant nursery developed in partnership with local farmers.

Each school received $25,000 to continue developing its project.

Reflecting on the programme’s impact, VM Foundation CEO Samantha Charles said what stood out most was the range of skills students developed, including entrepreneurship, financial literacy, leadership and teamwork.

“We’ve made a deliberate effort to include these elements as part of the VM Enrich training programme. These are skills that stay with our participants long after the programme ends and continue to shape how they think, how they lead, and how they approach life. We are not just supporting projects, but we are helping to shape mindsets and empowering young people with the tools to see themselves as problem-solvers, as innovators, and leaders,” Charles said.

Currently, the programme is active in 11 schools across Kingston, St Elizabeth, Trelawny, Clarendon, St Ann, St Catherine and St Mary. Adding to the energy of the day, students were also engaged through interactive sessions in AI and robotics, facilitated by the team at PreeLabs Limited.

goodheart@gleanerjm.com