ALPART Commits $6 Million to Recovery Effort

Alumina Partners of Jamaica (ALPART) has committed $6 million to help with the recovery effort in about 47 communities in St. Elizabeth and South Manchester, which were affected by Hurricane Ivan over three weeks ago.
Public Relations Manager for ALPART, Lance Neita told JIS News that the money would assist in the three critical areas of education, health, and agriculture.
“We are in the middle of it all, because all our adjoining communities have suffered some form of damage. The big news is that our owners, Glencore and Hydro Aluminium, when they heard of the damage in St. Elizabeth, they established a $31 million grant to assist employees and the communities. This translates into assistance for about 800 of our employees here at Nain and about 400 at ALPART’s mining venture on the Manchester plateau,” he noted.
Mr. Neita explained that the allocations to the wider community would be made directly by the bauxite company.
“We are hoping that it will help with the immediate repairs to a number of educational institutions and agricultural facilities directly affected by the hurricane. Some $1.7 million will go to schools and so far we have been able to identify 14 schools with the help of our community council members,” he said.
The Public Relations Manager pointed out that some of the educational institutions to be assisted included Red Bank Basic, Morningside Primary, St. Albans, Tryall, Lititz Basic and Butt Up Basic Schools; Mannings Home for Boys; Nain Basic, Bethlehem All-Age, Austin All-Age and Ballard’s Valley Primary Schools; Munro College, Hampton High School, Bethlehem Teachers’ College and St. Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS).
“For Health, we have just prepared a cheque for $500,000 for Black River Hospital. We have also listed the Port Sea and Myersville health clinics for similar financial assistance,” he told JIS News.
Mr. Neita pointed out that approximately $1.5 million would be disbursed through the Jamaica Agricultural Society and the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) to needy farmers.
“There are also a number of youth empowerment facilities that we will be trying to help, such as restoring the roof on the community centre at New Building, which Ivan removed,” he said.
Mr. Neita also noted that the company was doing a number of projects in collaboration with the St. Elizabeth Parish Disaster Committee team. “We have promised them a generator to aid in the running of their emergency operations centre,” he said.