By Ainsley Walters, Staff Reporter
A STONE'S throw away from Sabina Park, in the Central Kingston community of Campbell Town, there's a steady humming of machinery coming from John McKennon's woodwork shop at 6 Hart Street.
Director of Distinctive Designs, McKennon is one of many small business operators, mainly inner-city, to have benefited from the Kingston Restoration Company's (KRC) Tools for Development Jamaica (TDJ) programme.
Established February 2001, TDJ was fashioned off the 10-year-old Tools for Development Canada programme, offering used tools, sourced overseas, to micro enterprises at affordable prices.
McKennon, who supplies major retail stores such as Singer, Raymars and Furniture Plus, seemingly can't get enough. He has already acquired from TDJ a belt and disc sander, an air compressor, scroll saw, turning lathe, metal saw, radial arm saw and a jointer.
Formed through a partnership by The Gleaner Company Limited, the Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS) and KRC, Jamaica was the first island in the English-speaking Caribbean to adopt the programme, initiated in Lima, Peru in 1988 by A. Roy Megarry while he was publisher of the Toronto Globe newspaper.
There are also similar programmes operating in Costa Rica and Ecuador.
"Our first shipment of tools was December 2000. We've received eight so far and the ninth is being cleared now," TDJ project manager, Alain Williams, told The Gleaner.
"At last calculation in March, a detailed assessment showed we had 97 beneficiaries," Williams said, adding that sewing machines and woodwork tools such as table saws were the items most in demand.
For McKennon, the programme was "a very good idea".
"The sander (stationary) I got late last year for $6,500, you can't find that here," he pointed out.
"It was during a peak period, December. Before that, I used a sander (hand-held) turned upside down. It was not as efficient. With this you can apply pressure and it's easier to manoeuvre."
Response to the programme has been good, attracting beneficiaries from as far as Hanover and St. James in the west and Portland in the east.
"We started slowly at first but sales picked up. We try to get a feel for the demand," project manager Williams explained. "Some items we need we can't get. At times we get what we need but they're not sufficient to fill a container so other items get thrown in."
Even though TDJ's primary target group is the inner-city, in a bid to uplift and provide jobs, some items, due to affordability, are sold to bigger enterprises.
L&E Engineering, Williams said, sources items from TDJ for its metal work and machinery maintenance business.
"There have been items such as engine lathes, which we've sold for between $90,000-$100,000, would be impossible to source here and if found, would cost nearly $500,000," the project manager explained.
Funding can be sourced through JNBS' JN Micro Credit, a special credit arrangement for persons interested in buying tools through the TDJ programme. However, purchases are mainly cash, Williams said.
"Most are cash and some are at
times referred to the JNBS facility," he said. "It's a maximum $20,000 for first-time borrowers.
