The Caribbean Christian Center for the Deaf (CCCD) ministry began in 1958 with eight students and three staff members. This, combined with the help of volunteer teams from the United States, has enabled the CCCD to build three K-12 residential schools and a Jamaican Deaf Village for adults to live and work. The total student population is approximately 250 students and is staffed with 25 adults with deafness. The Center provides education, medical care and a Christian atmosphere for living. This support may be the only opportunity for the children and adults with hearing loss to acquire an education, learn to live independently and become fully contributing members of society.

The primary mode of communication at the school is sign language, which affords a system of language in order to communicate with others. However, educational and social opportunities are often limited with sign language. It creates isolation since communication is limited to others who sign and does not naturally lead to acquiring a formal language base. Children educated with sign language tend to have a significant deficit in the ability to read and write in their native language since sign language is a visual mode of communication. Additionally, the degree of hearing impairment within the student population varies greatly. Children with mild and sever impairments enroll in the same schools as children who are profoundly deaf. If children with a lesser degree of hearing loss are provided with the opportunity to hear, they are more likely to acquire speech and language in their native tongue.