JCPD Invites Applications for Scholarship

The Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities (JCPD) is now inviting applications for its Margaret Moody Scholarship for persons with disabilities.

Applicants must be fully registered with the JCPD and enrolled in a diploma or degree programme at a tertiary institution. Volunteerism will also be considered during the selection process.

Executive Director of the JCPD, Christine Hendricks, told JIS News that it has become increasingly challenging to select from the applicants because they are so good.

“What has been done in recent years is to award grants to a number of persons who under other circumstances could have received a scholarship but [did not] because of the inability of the Fund to provide for so many,” she added.

Mrs. Hendricks is encouraging persons with disabilities from across the island to apply for the award.

“We want persons with any disability from across the island to apply because the scholarship is not just for Kingston, St. Andrew or St. Catherine. We want persons from the rural areas to apply as well,” she implored.

Application forms are available at the JCPD’s office, located at 18 Ripon Road in Kingston, and must be completed and submitted by Monday, July 31.

Support may be extended to awardees achieving at least a B average at the end of their programme.

For further information, interested persons may contact the JCPD at 968-8373; 968-0623 or 926-9374-6.Margaret Moody, who was a nurse at the University of the West Indies Hospital, bequeathed $582,392.30 to the community of disabled persons when she died in August 1985.

Some years later, it was handed over to the JCPD. To date, the value of the Fund stands at approximately $15 million.

The scholarship is awarded for a maximum of four years and covers tuition, boarding and educational materials.