Special Grant for Front-Line Healthcare Workers In St. Elizbeth South Western

More than 100 front-line healthcare workers in St. Elizabeth South Western are to benefit from a special $750,000 COVID-19 Relief Grant.

The grant has been facilitated by fintech company, WiPay, in partnership with Member of Parliament, Floyd Green, and other collaborators to reward the healthcare workers who have been hard at work during the pandemic.

At a demonstration ceremony on Monday, October 4 in Black River, St. Elizabeth, WiPay’s Country Manager for Jamaica, Kibwe McGann, explained that beneficiaries will each receive $7,500 made available via a special QR code sent by text or email to their mobile devices.

“So, when recipients get these text messages or email what they can do is they simply go to any of the redemption locations. For example, at Intown Supermarket, which we are at now in Black River, once they present that QR code, it will be scanned and recognised as cash,” Mr. McGann pointed out.

He said other commercial partners, such as Cawley’s Pharmacy, Lashings, Jakes, Frenchman’s Reef Restaurant and Petcom are on board, with more to come.

Mr. McGann noted that Black River is the first point of implementation, as the aim is to take this form of digital payment process islandwide.

“This grant is from WiPay, and we are drawing down from a US$1 million allocated for the [Caribbean] region. One of the first places we would have done this was in Trinidad, then we carried it to Grenada. We assisted the people in Barbados and now we are carrying it to Jamaica,” he said.

“Instead of issuing cheques or cash, which are labelled as a super spreader for the COVID-19 virus, we are using our payment technology to distribute those funds through QR codes, which can be scanned and redeemed using a WiPay smart terminal,” Mr. McGann added.

For her part, Health Education Officer for the St. Elizabeth Health Department, Radhica Newell, who demonstrated the process on the day, told JIS News that she is appreciative of the grant “that can help out in many ways”.

She said that a cashless system is important in this time, given that cash is considered a super spreader of COVID-19.

“This definitely could catch on. I personally don’t like to walk around with cash, so I definitely find it useful. The shopping was seamless, and I would recommend it to anyone,” Ms. Newell said.

Clinic Attendant at the Black River Health Centre, Anthony Buddle, noted that passing cash from hand to hand is very risky, given the ease of transfer of the COVID-19.

He pointed out that a wireless payment option when shopping would be the most ideal system.

Meanwhile, Mr. Green said that front-line healthcare workers need to be recognised and awarded for their invaluable service since the onset of the pandemic.

“They are caring for those who are ill and also working tremendously on things like contact tracing, spreading awareness and the vaccine rollout. So, I thought it was very important for us to say thank you and show our appreciation in a very tangible way,” Mr. Green said.