I consider Cherine Anderson a friend. We met a few years ago during a sit-down interview at Grafton Studios on Deanery Road. The interview lasted maybe 25-30 minutes and then we talked for another hour and a half. It felt like we had known each other for years. I was very impressed by how well she articulated her thoughts and the purity of her intentions.

She writes beautiful lyrics that - to me - reflect the person she is inside. Borrowing a line from Chronixx, her "heart clean like a little whistle". It's not often you meet people who are more about what they can do to help others than what they can do for themselves.

I guess you have figured out by now that I like her a lot, but just when I thought I couldn't possibly like her anymore than I do now, she proved me wrong.

Cherine has a foundation called The Reach One Child Foundation. ROC was founded in 2004 by the singer and her manager, Patrick Lindsay, and is dedicated to providing need-based scholarships and motivational and mentoring programmes for disenfranchised youth in this country.

Motivations

Last week, Cherine launched the 2015 Scholarship Programme under which 14 more children will be afforded scholarships to attend school right through to university. This brings to 49 the number of children the foundation currently helps. She said she wants to send 1,000 kids from the inner city to school because it is only through education that they can truly be empowered.

It has not been easy for her. She has a career to pursue and she has other responsibilities, I am sure. But here she is, giving back in such a big way. At last week's launch at Eden Gardens, Cherine spoke from the heart about her motivation and her intentions, and as she spoke, I couldn't help getting emotional because in a time when so many people, entertainers included, who are all about what they can get, here is this beautiful young woman doing her all to help people who she doesn't even know.

Confidence and inspiration

And as if to reinforce the value of what Cherine is doing through ROC, young Tariq Thomas, a student of Wolmer's, the 2014 ROC Scholar, spoke eloquently about what receiving help from the foundation has meant for him. He spoke about how the death of his father plunged his family into financial ruin. He also spoke about being mocked at school; but with tears streaming down his face, he spoke about the confidence and inspiration he has been afforded by ROC. There was not a dry eye in the house by the time he was done. If he is an example of what we can expect from our future, then it certainly looks bright, thanks in no small part to Cherine.

On a less positive note, however, it came to light how sponsors have been slow coming on board this worthwhile endeavour, and it's sad. Why? Because if Cherine was promoting some empty hyped-up thing, they would be all on board; but something to lift Jamaica's impoverished youth and nothing.

That being said, Cherine has a festival coming up on July 4 at the Jesse Ripoll Primary School on Camp Road that I am urging people to support because in supporting it, you are supporting the foundation that is doing so much for Jamaica's less-fortunate kids.

I have always been about helping others, and it's one of the reasons why I consider Cherine to be a friend, one of whom I am extremely proud.

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