Labour Day Activities planned for Kingston, Manchester, St. Thomas and St. James
Kingston, Jamaica – Touching lives through creating nurturing spaces for children is the goal of the Digicel Foundation with its island-wide Labour Day activity this year.
The Foundation, with over 100 active Digicel staff volunteers, will be working alongside communities on projects at the Fletcher’s Land Community Centre in Downtown Kingston; the Princess Margaret Hospital in St. Thomas; the Montego Bay Infant School in St. James and the Belretiro Basic School in Manchester. “Digicel and the Foundation have a tradition of active volunteerism, with Labour Day as one of our major calendar events,” noted Samantha Chantrelle, CEO of the Digicel Foundation.
With an aim to increasing the sustainability of the children’s ward at the Princess Margaret Hospital the Foundation will be developing a vegetable garden and carrying out repairs on the ward. “With this vegetable garden we will have a wide selection of sustenance that will cater to the needs of the children’s ward,” said Kameka Brooks, CEO of the hospital.
“The ward needs fixing up and we’re elated to have the Digicel Foundation on board. This re-vamping will not only benefit the current complement of children but will assist us in having the ward ready for any emergencies or outbreaks,” Brooks added. The children’s ward serves the populations of St. Thomas, Eastern Portland and Eastern St. Andrew.
In Kingston, the Foundation will also be working close to home in Downtown where Digicel’s headquarters are based. The Fletcher’s Land Community Centre serves as a safety net for children within the community says David Allen, Chairman of the Fletcher’s Land Management Benevolent Society (FLMBS).
Community members and their children will be coming out to participate in landscaping the football field as well repairs to the Community Centre and assisting children create an ‘art wall.’
“This Labour Day we want the children in our Grade 4 Reading Programme to be involved,” said Allen. “So we have Jason Lorraine a talented Edna Manley student from the community doing educational imprints on the wall for the children and volunteers to fill in. We want the children to really relate to it.”
Allen has also received commitments from the community to assist with repairing the football field. The repaired field will enable friendly competitions within the community with the hope of curbing violence in Fletcher’s Land.
At the Montego Bay Infant School, principal Constance Graham and her staff has been battling with on-going water problems. “Where the canteen and the bathrooms are situated there is hardly any water, which is unhealthy for the children. So we are ecstatic and fabulously elated that the Foundation has agreed to assist us by donating a water tank,” said Graham.
The Montego Bay Infant School caters to 997 students who will also be benefitting from newly painted classrooms at the school. At the Belretiro Basic School the Foundation will be securing the facilities of the school by installing safety rails, grills on the windows and carrying out repairs to the fencing.
“Giving back is in our DNA. This year we wanted to touch even more lives, this is why we will be working on various projects across Jamaica that embrace this year’s theme of, ‘Labour of Love: Nurturing Our Children,’” said Chantrelle. “These four projects will see us re-creating and uplifting nurturing spaces for children through necessary repairs, painting and development.”
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