A NEW Rural Family Support Centre is to be built on 1.5 acres of land at 2 Brooks Avenue in May Pen, Clarendon.
Speaking at a ground breaking ceremony on January 11, 2001, Ms. Scarlette Gillings, managing director of the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) said that, as part of Government's poverty alleviation programme, the JSIF's role in the project was to enhance the centre's level of service delivery to the poor.
JSIF is financing the project at a value of $6.3 million through funds from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The Bernard van Leer Foundation, another contributor to the project, is donating $3.6 million, bringing the total cost of the project to $9.9 million.
In outlining the history of the project, Executive Director of the Rural Family Support Organisation (RuFamSo), Mrs. Joyce Jarrett said that the organisation began as a single unit in 1986 by addressing the problem of teenage pregnancy. "RuFamSo then unfurled into an umbrella organisation, embracing the wider concerns of poor rural families, not only in Clarendon, but in the adjacent parishes of Manchester and St. Catherine", she said.
She explained that in 1997, RuFamSo gave up the building which had housed the programmes for 11 years. This she said caused dislocation and affected their ability to offer the programmes. Since then RuFamSo programmes have been accommodated at different buildings in Clarendon - the Jaycees and Day Care buildings on the Denbigh Show Grounds, the Clarendon 4-H Clubs and Grace Kitchens.
Mrs. Jarrett said "with the completion of the new building, we hope to resume much of our activities and we hope to add new programmes to meet the challenges of the changing world". The building is to be completed by June.
Upon completion, the Centre will house a demonstration day care facility, library and reading room, training rooms and a media centre to promote innovations in early childhood education, parenting and counselling approaches for families.
The building system to be used at RuFamSo is that of polymer with insitue concrete (concrete poured into a form) and is being used for the first time on a JSIF project. The polymer building system promises speedy construction, quality finish, and solid concrete that is built to last with low maintenance costs.
