History of Organization:

After visiting rural Jamaica as student physical therapist and seeing the vast need for physical therapy services, Dr. Brooke Riley decided to return to Jamaica after graduation. In October of 2004, Dr. Riley moved to St. Elizabeth parish, located on the southwest coast of the island with a population of 150,000. At the time, there was only one other physical therapist practicing in St. Elizabeth; however, the average Jamaican was unable to afford these services. Dr. Riley began treating patients at a nominal fee or free of cost, volunteering at a local health center. After living in rural Jamaica for a year, Dr. Riley began identifying many unmet spiritual, educational, medical, and social needs and felt called to help meet some of those needs. After several discussions with community leader, Anna Edwards and other concerned community members, a grass roots movement was formed. Two immediate concerns identified were:

1) a large percentage of community teens drop out of school with no job skills or opportunities

2) a large percentage of community children fall below the average reading level for their age group

As community interest grew, the grass roots movement evolved into a small community organization called Friends of Ridge United (FOR U Jamaica) in October of 2006. Dr. Riley and Ms. Edwards served on the executive body with a few other community leaders and the organization grew to thirty members. Through the efforts of FOR U Jamaica, a parcel of land with a partial building structure was acquired with the intention of building a community center. Over the last two years FOR U Jamaica has implemented low budget programs targeting the needs of the community. After two years of community fund-raising it became apparent that larger funding would be required in order to meet the goal of building a community center and carrying out community projects.

Throughout the past two years, Dr. Riley has served as a liaison between the rural Jamaican community in St. Elizabeth and persons in the United States wanting to get involved. In December of 2007, Dr. Riley established Friends of the Redeemer United (FOR U) as a nonprofit corporation in the state of Mississippi. FOR U was created for the purposes of encouraging the healing process through involvement in spiritual, social, educational, and health-related services in South Mississippi and rural Jamaica, creating awareness of the needs of the under-served in South Mississippi and rural Jamaica, and providing opportunity for involvement in improving the quality of life for the under-served in South Mississippi and rural Jamaica. FOR U plans to carry out our exempt purposes by working alongside our sister organization, Friends of Ridge United and by supporting volunteer medical services in under-served populations in the U.S. and abroad.