Wards of the State to Get Culture Passports

About 100 culture passports will be handed over to the Child Development Agency (CDA) for older wards of the State, who will be able to access, free of cost or at reduced rates, cultural heritage sites, cultural institutions and communities.

The handing over ceremony will take place on Wednesday, February 17, at the CDA’s Office, 48 Duke Street, Kingston, beginning at 10:00 a.m.

This is part of the Ministry of Youth and Culture’s ongoing efforts to promote the Culture Passport Programme, and encourage young people to experience Jamaica’s culture and heritage. The culture passport programme was unveiled in June 2015 by the Ministry.

Principal Director of Culture and Creative Industries Policy Division of the Ministry of Youth and Culture, Dr. Janice Lindsay, told JIS News that the Ministry is aiming to distribute some 10,000 culture passports by 2017/2018.

She informed that 1,000 passports have so far been distributed to primary and secondary school students of 200 culture clubs islandwide, adding that students can access culture passports by becoming members of their school’s culture club programme, which is managed by the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC), an agency of the Ministry of Youth and Culture.

Dr. Lindsay said that all the passports distributed by the clubs must be certified by the JCDC, by having the Commission’s stamp and the signature of a senior person of the Commission.

“All our holders thus far have in their possession certified passports. If you do not have a certified passport you will not be able to access any of the cultural sites or any of the institutions. You have to be able to demonstrate that it was certified by the JCDC,” she emphasised.

In an effort to properly manage the programme, she said a photograph of the passport holder is also displayed in the culture passports.

“It is a standard requirement that a passport size photograph has to be used. You can’t use any other photograph, whether it is going to be selfie or something else, you cannot use those. It has to be a passport size photograph,” she said.