By Erica James-King, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
MAJOR PLAYERS in the United Nations Volunteer Programme (UNVP) are seeking to update Governor-General Sir Howard Cooke on the latest activities being undertaken by the programme in Jamaica and around the globe.
To this end, at the National Leadership Prayer Breakfast held in Trelawny recently, Abel Kipeja, project promotion specialist with the UNVP, presented the Governor-General with the maiden volunteerism newsletter on the project. The newsletter reports on the success of the UNVP logo competition involving students from schools within Falmouth and its environs, the achievements in environmental upgrading of Falmouth in keeping with the Falmouth Development Plan and efforts to establish a tourist-friendly environment in that parish capital.
"As we reflect on some of the activities which have been done by volunteerism, we want the Governor-General to be aware of what we are doing," Mr. Kipeja told persons participating in the prayer breakfast. "We know he is a strong supporter of volunteer work." This presentation was more than a symbolic chain in a list of events, as four years ago the Governor-General appointed Trelawny's Custos Roland Barrett to co-chair the committee spearheading the 'International Year of the Volunteers.'
INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM
Coming out of an international symposium on volunteerism in Geneva, Switzerland, where Custos Barrett made a presentation, Falmouth was chosen by the United Nations as one of three sites around the world which would benefit from the intra-city volunteerism project.
The project, which spearheads urban development through voluntary work, began in Falmouth last year, and will run until November this year. Meanwhile, Custos Barrett announced at the prayer breakfast that scores of lay magistrates from Trelawny would be throwing their financial resources, time and energy into a comprehensive programme for improving early childhood education facilities in the parish. "We have singled out early childhood education in the Clarks Town area for some action this time around, and this year's proceeds will go to those (institutions) in that community," said Custos Barrett, in noting that proceeds from the prayer breakfast will be ploughed into the upgrading of early childhood institutions in the parish.
Currently, some of the 240 lay magistrates in Trelawny are assisting with a breakfast programme for a basic school in Clarks Town, as well as volunteering their services to help with devotion and teaching activities in other basic schools. Reverend Dr. George Simpson, the pastor of the Mount Carey Circuit of Baptist Churches, who was the keynote speaker at the prayer breakfast, challenged Jamaicans to seek God's word as food for the soul.
Making reference to the theme of the prayer breakfast 'Love Thy Neighbour As Thyself', Rev. Dr. Simpson warned that until one is able to genuinely love himself/herself and to love God genuinely, he or she is not prepared to love anybody else.
The National Leadership Prayer Breakfast, which was hosted by the lay magistrates, was held at Roi's Villas and Lagoon Resort in Trelawny.
