Consulates team up for Diaspora outreach and Jazz Festival

Overseas Jamaicans heading home for the 15th Jazz and Blues Festival at the Trelawny Multipurpose Stadium this weekend, will have the opportunity to take care of immigration, birth record and other matters, while enjoying the world class entertainment.

The Consulates General of Jamaica New York and Miami will be mounting an information booth on location for the three days of the music festival from January 27 to 29. The booth is the brainchild of Jamaica's Consul GeneraltoNew York, Hon. Geneive Brown-Metzger.

In an interview with JIS News, the Consul General explained that the missions have joined up with the Registrar General’s Department RGD), along with the Passport, Immigration and Citizens Agency (PICA) to offer services at the Jazz and Blues Festival.

“You can make applications for birth, death, marriage, and other certificate or record update activities as well as passport and immigration matters,” she said.

“This is a great opportunity. We see this as an outreach to those in the Diaspora, who would want to take advantage of these services. It’s important because the Jazz audience is more than 60 per cent Diaspora,” she said.

Representatives from the Jamaica Diaspora Foundation in the United States will also be on hand to promote the Government’s Diaspora engagement policy and provide information on the upcoming fourth biennial conference slated for June this year.

Consul General said that the outreach could become an annual feature of the Jazz and Blues Festival. She acknowledged the generosity of Walter Elmore, organizer of the event for facilitating the information booth.

Thousands of visitors are expected in the island for the music festival, which is being held at the stadium located on the outskirts of the historic town of Falmouth for the second consecutive year.

The festival promises a star-studded line-up of local and international performers.

CONTACT: DERRICK SCOTT

JIS INFORMATION ATTACHÉ

JAMAICAN EMBASSY

WASHINGTON, DC.