THE UNITED Way of Jamaica's Millennium fund is to receive $12 million from the bauxite/alumina industry, according to a pledge made by employees, trade unions and management.
In a joint effort led by Jamalco's Managing Director Jerome Maxwell, employees from the four opertating companies Alcan, Alpart (including the Alpart Mining venture), Jamalco, Kaiser, and the Jamaica Bauxite Institute (JBI) and the Department of Mines, have launched a giant campaign to raise the funds by December 31.
The campaign was launched recently at the Kendal Confe-rence Centre in Manchester and is a repeat of a similar programme conducted last year which raised $10 million for the United Way from employee salary deductions and company contribution.
Mr. Maxwell described Campaign 2000 as a "selfless and voluntary act undertaken by employees who wish to make life a little better for the less fortunate in the society, and who have taken cognizance of the many deserving and charitable projects in the bauxite belt that need a helping hand."
The chairman, supported by other general managers, industry union delegates, union leaders, and a team of volunteer campaign workers representing the companies, said that he was confident the new target of $12 million would be met, and urged employees to start filling in the thousands of United Way pledge cards that have been circulated at the plants.
A motivation programme aimed at securing 100 per cent voluntary compliance from employees, supported by a video documentary produced by the companies highlighting the work of a number of charitable institutions located in bauxite areas, is now underway.
The committee is also planning what it calls a super fund-raising bingo party next month in Manchester.
Mr. Maxwell noted that the bauxite industry was represented on the United Way allocations committee and provides guidance for funding of projects in the companies' operating areas.
He reported that since that year grants had been made to the Jamaica Cancer Society in St. Elizabeth, the Clarendon Association for Street People, the Spring Village Development Foundation in St. Catherine, the Hyacinth Lightbourne Nursing Service in Mandeville, and the Jamaica Association for the Mentally Handicapped, Wood-side, Clarendon.
The official launch at Kendal was addressed by Dr. Herbert Thompson, President of the Northern Caribbean University, Elon Beckford, Chairman of United Way, Jamaica, Norman DaCosta, vice-president of the National Workers Union who spoke on behalf of the trade unions, Lyle Newbold, General Manager of Alpart Mining, and Parris Lyew-Ayee, General Manager, JBI.
