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The Mavis Scarlett Foundation is looking to expand its reach in Jamaica. The NGO, founded by Stephanie Dunstan in 2016, became an official entity last year, and provides resources to students to assist them with their education.

Dunstan says the foundation has helped more than 20 students so far, and wants to provide aid to more.

"My goal this year is just to expand it. I'm trying to increase the presence of it so more people can know about it, and so they can increase their donations because, just judging of what I've been doing on social media and on facebook, a lot of school, and principals and teachers respond to me from other areas in Jamaica,"

Dunstan said she was born in Portmore, but grew up and currently lives in Philadelphia, USA. She said that she started the organisation in memory of her late grandmother, Mavis Scarlett, who was a teacher.

"My grandmother worked at Queen's School for more than 35 years, and she was very influential in my upbringing. She passed in 2014, and I just wanted to do something in honour of her, because she was just so dedicated to us getting an education to better ourselves, because that's really all that we had," she said.

Currently, Dunstan said the foundation has a partnership with the Hamilton Garden Basic School in St Catherine.

It pays the school fees, buys books for, and gives a stipend towards the uniforms of 20 students. But Dustan said she wants to include another school this year.

"For the 2019 school year coming up in September, my goal is to increase this partnership to one more school, but the school has to be in St Catherine. We also opened up a platform to allow outside students to apply for a scholarship fund. They need to submit a short essay, explaining why they need the funding, their last report card, and two letters of recommendation from teachers at their school, and they have to email those by May 1," she said.

Describing this is as her passion, Dunstan said she will also be looking to get corporate companies involved.

"My next step is to try and get a solicitation letter so I can try and reach out to some of the corporations in Jamaica to see if they will be able to assist us as well," she said.

Persons wishing to contribute to the Mavis Scarlett Foundation can do so by visiting thier website at .