IN KEEPING with part of its mandate to fund educational projects across the island, the Culture, Health, Arts, Sports and Education (CHASE) fund has improved the learning environment of students at the Hopewell Basic School in Hanover.
The 36-year-old institution, which has a population of six teachers and 100 students ranging from age three to six, has recently acquired its own premises and has constructed its own building through community efforts and contributions from several individuals, organisations and businesses in and around the Hopewell community.
The building is located in the Orchard Housing Scheme in Hopewell, and consists of four classrooms, an office, bathroom facilities for teachers and students, and a kitchen.
The need for furniture for the new building became apparent when the administrators of the institution decided that they wanted to move into the new building for the beginning of the 2004/2005 school year.
The furniture and equipment, which were being used by the school while it was on the premises of the Hopewell Deliverance Centre had to be left there, since they are the property of the church.
The CHASE fund then stepped in with a grant of approximately $700,000 to furnish the new building and make it habitable. With the new furniture, teachers and students moved to their new building in the Orchard Housing Scheme on November 5.
Principal of the school, Oliviene Grant told JIS News that the grant could not have come at a better time.
She said the funding fulfilled a major dream, which was to move into the new and more spacious facility before the end of this year.
