Alvaro Casserley, chairman of the United Way of Jamaica presents the Highest Corporate Award to Michael Lee Chin, chairman of the NCB Group. - CONTRIBUTED
LOCAL AND international donors gave $290 million to United Way of Jamaica (UWJ) in 2004 to help support local projects and causes.
According to the organisation's chairman, Alvaro Casserley, over the years "the support of donors and volunteers has enabled United Way to provide much needed resources for community development, agricultural and environmental projects, education, skills training, health, and youth-at-risk, among other areas.
But, he told guests at the organisation's annual Nation Builder's Awards Ceremony at the Jamaica Pegasus on May 25, 2005, "In 2004 we achieved new levels of performance that could be described as spectacular".
Mr. Casserley noted that after Hurricane Ivan last September, the UWJ launched a 'Hurricane Ivan Restoration Fund' with $2 million to assist mainly the agricultural sector.
The target was to mobilise $100 million from corporate and individual donors and following an announcement by the National Commercial Bank of Jamaica (NCB), that the $100 million would be made available as matching funds through October 31, 2004, the UWJ and NCB partnered to raise over $268 million. Other fund-raising activities including the annual campaign brought the total raised in 2004 to $290 million.
The money was used by the UWJ to assist the agricultural sector in food production, fishing and provision of domestic water supplies to farmers, as well as projects in education, housing, health and restoration of churches.
The United Way of Jamaica, which is now celebrating its 20th year of operations, is seeking to strengthen and extend its scope of operations.
