Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
Dunstan Bryan (right), acting social manager of the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), addresses nearly 130 participants from inner-city communities in Kingston and St. Andrew yesterday during the JSIF Summer Employment Programme in Kingston. The programme is geared towards training 321 inner-city youth between the ages of 16-24 who have completed high school or are in tertiary institutions across Kingston and St. Andrew, St. Catherine, Clarendon and St. James. The programme is slated to run for four weeks from July 16-August 10 where the participants will be introduced to proper work ethics, job-readiness skills and developing their current skill.Hermitage Learning Centre improvedHermitage, St. Andrew:
Residents from the community of Hermitage and its environs, who once used the Hermitage Learning Centre, will no longer have to sit under tents during classes.
Charity organisation, Food For the Poor, has built them a $1 million learning facility, inclusive of an office, kitchen and classrooms.
The facility was officially handed over to the community at a function last Wednesday.
In addition to the new facility, which has the capacity to comfortably house 50 students and their teachers, Food For the Poor has further donated office and classroom furniture, plus a furnished kitchen.
In 2001, the Hermitage Learning Centre became fully operational by offering homework, masonry and CXC classes from Mondays to Saturdays, each week.
- Contributed
Juici Youth Leadership Workshop successfulROYAL FLAT, MANCHESTER:
Last Wednesday, 50 students from 10 high schools in Manchester turned up at the Manchester Infirmary in Royal Flat.
Their initial reaction was fear as most started crying and some refused to exit the bus upon seeing the residents.
The student volunteers are participants in this year's Juici Patties Youth Leadership Workshop.
At the Infirmary they groomed the residents, raked the lawn and took part in the soup-feeding programme.
Nickeisha Benjamin of Bishop Gibson High stated that the experience has helped her to to appreciate what she has.
"This is a heart-rending experience; I always wanted to assist persons and I am thankful for the opportunity. It will definitely make me stronger," said Shane Johnson of Christiana High.
- Nathaniel Stewart
Bammy factory handed over to communityFLOWER HILL, ST. JAMES:
Twenty-three years after its inception, the bammy factory in Flower Hill, St. James, is reporting success and is providing jobs for more than 400 people across western Jamaica.
Farmers, staff members residing in and around the community and representatives from various Government agencies converged at the Flower Hill Bammy Factory in St. James last Thursday for the official handing over of the facility from the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) to the community.
Renamed the Flower Hill Producers Co-operative Society Limited, it is operated and owned by the community.
The project was constructed and equipped at a total cost of J$7.1 million, with the JSIF providing approximately $6.9 million, obtained from the Caribbean Development Bank. The remaining $223,000 was provided by the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) and the management of the factory.
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More sanitation space for rural JamaicaST. THOMAS:
Students and teachers from the Old Pera Basic School in St. Thomas are today living in healthier conditions following the construction of a J$700, 000 sanitation block at the institution courtesy of Food For the Poor, working in partnership with Corporate Jamaica.
A new sanitation block was constructed for the 56 students enrolled at the school. It is divided in two sections for males and females and each is equipped with two flush toilets and one wash basin. A urinal was also installed.
The three teachers at the institution who once shared bathroom facilities with the students, also received their own bathroom compartment equipped with a flushable toilet and wash basin.
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