The reading centre is like a second home where these children leave their shoes at the doorway and move around barefooted, indoors and outside under the sun, playing, screaming and laughing the day away.

A refuge

Children from the Trench Town community go to the centre, where librarian, Nikeisha Howell (more commonly referred to as 'Happy'), and other volunteers supervise and educate them with various reading materials. These range from fiction to biographies, mainly Afrocentric and Jamaican in nature.

"While the children are reading," Howell began, "they can actually see themselves in the books they're reading."

Charming, yet mysterious, Tevin Baker is not a regular at the centre, but sat quietly playing with chess pieces at a table nestled among books, sometimes staring off into space, the sunlight highlighting his dark eyes.

However, children are children and when they saw Tevin, they flocked to him and were quick to send him on his way so they could take over and show off their progress.

A love for reading

They dispersed and 11-year-old Orlando Annikie was left in plain sight with half of his hand in his mouth, sucking away.

He enjoys reading and says English Language is his favourite subject. Unable to say why, he said, "It's just my favourite subject, Miss."

Annike spends about three-to-five hours at the centre, reading and learning or playing a game of 'stuckey' outside.

"I'm happy when I'm here," he said with his chin in his chest. "The teachers treat me nice."

Feeling hopeless

Things are not always smooth sailing for Annike who says, sometimes, he gets sad when he feels there is no hope for him.

Despite the ups and downs, he holds on tightly to his dreams of becoming either a doctor, so he may "take care of [the] family", or a policeman and "catch the people who make the community bad".

Roslyn Ellison, coordinator, co-founder and programme director for the centre, focused on the lack of resources in inner-city schools and how the centre tries to make up for it.

"If you're illiterate," she said, "what are you going to do?"

It is a struggle for the centre as volunteers are very few, even to spend an hour to read with the children.

"We're lacking in funding," said Ellison. "When people go away, they forget."

But the children don't forget. There are photographs on a high shelf in the library, bound together in an album, as constant reminders of how far Trench Town has come.