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The Social Development Commission (SDC) rewarded more than 80 individuals and organisations for service to various communities during the staging of its 'Spirit of Community' awards ceremony held at the Stella Maris Church Hall in Kingston on Thursday, December 9. A total of 73 individuals were awarded in the categories of safety and security, philanthropy, community service, community sports, and...

Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, Hon. Olivia Grange, has appealed to the European Union (EU) to review the provisions of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), to see how CARIFORUM countries can better benefit from assistance for the development and promotion of culture. The Minister was speaking with JIS News on December 9 following her address at the United Nations...

Approximately 300 youth volunteers drawn from schools and organisations across the parish of Portland, participated in a farm project at the Muirton Boys Home on Sunday (December 5) to mark International Volunteers Day. The event, which was organised by the National Centre for Youth Development, (NCYD), was the national project for Jamaica. Activities undertaken included the re-building of a pig...

Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, Hon. Olivia Grange, is in Brussels, Belgium, attending a conference celebrating the fifth anniversary of the signing of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. The Convention provides the platform for the treatment of culture within the framework of world trade and international co-operation. Miss Grange, who...

A private sector coalition, headed by the Private sector Organization of Jamaica (PSOJ), has embarked on the implementation of a multi-million intervention programme aimed at fostering renewal efforts among inner city youth. Aptly named Youth Upliftment Through Employment (YUTE), the project seeks to target some of the root causes of crime, violence and unemployment impacting young people, through an aggressive...

The Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT) has erected nine signs and storyboards throughout Portland to identify designated heritage sites in the parish. The sites are: the Port Antonio Railway Station, Buff Bay Courthouse, St. George's Anglican Church in Buff Bay, Old Port Antonio Court House, Port Antonio Cenotaph, Port Antonio Christ Church, Titchfield High School compound, the Demontevin Lodge Guest...

A Special Report of the Office of the Children's Advocate has said there is a need to commission a national incidence and prevalence study on children and violence, so as to better understand the nature and scope of the problem. The report, which has made several recommendations, was tabled in the House of Representatives on November 30. It was put...

The Office of the Children's Advocate (OCA) is recommending that the Government expand the suite of services to child victims and perpetrators of violence, to include therapeutic use of expressive arts in aiding recovery and rehabilitation. In an OCA report tabled in the House of Representatives on November 30, it noted that provisions should be made for structured after-school and...

Since the Government of Jamaica abolished user fees for children under 18 in 2007, the Bustamante Hospital for Children has seen an increase of 30 per cent patients visiting the accident and emergency department, and another 12 per cent increase in admissions. "These figures are a clear indication of the frightening reality that there were parents who were previously unable...

Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon. Dr. Christopher Tufton, has reiterated that the campaign for consumers to support locally produced foods, is about keeping afloat a number of other economic activities in the local economy. The Minister who was addressing the 7th staging of the Eat Jamaican Campaign, held Thursday (November 25), at the Denbigh Show Ground, Clarendon, stated that...

Guidance and Counselling Education Officer in the Ministry of Education, Sonia Benjamin, is urging parents to look for signs of grief in children and to seek support from the school in helping them cope with death, violence or other traumatic events. She was addressing the Old Harbour Development Area Committee-organised parenting workshop held on Monday (November 22) in Old Harbour....

The Youth Entrepreneurship Programme (YEP) has been transferred to the Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture as Government moves to ensure that the programme more adequately meets the needs of the country's young people. Portfolio Minister, Hon. Olivia Grange, made the announcement on Wednesday November 24 at the opening of the Yute X 2010 Conference put on by the Jamaica...