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Work will continue this fiscal year to increase the access of the youth to quality information, skills and services in order to reduce their risk for HIV infection. This will be done under the Youth Empowerment and Participation Programme, for which a provision of $11 million has been made in the 2009/10 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of...

Twenty one, of more than 300 singers and songwriters across the island that entered the Festival Song 2k9 Competition have been selected to participate in the semi final round on April 16. They include: Linoleum White from the parish of St. Thomas with "Sweet Little Paradise", Michael Barnett with "Gi Mi Mi Sweet Jamaica", Delisser McFarlane with "Quiet Oonuself", and...

Children's Advocate, Mary Clarke, has called on Jamaicans to begin to practise proper waste disposal in order to ensure a safer environment for the nation's children. "It is time for us to get a little more advanced and even to start separating our disposables and our waste as we seek to reuse, recycle and reduce," she stated, as she addressed...

The Government is spending approximately $82 million this fiscal year on youth empowerment and development programmes. The Ministry of Education has been allocated $50 million in the 2009/10 Estimates of Expenditure for a Youth Development Programme aimed at strengthening institutional capacity to implement, monitor and evaluate youth policies and programmes. Support will be given to existing projects, and new initiatives...

Ladies and Gentlemen, join me in creative imagination. Close your eyes and picture this:A backdrop of unfurling mountain ranges, towering peaks and lush vegetation - sixty thousand revelers sway in unison, to Jamaica's music, reggae music, enchanted by the warm, friendly atmosphere. The voice of Bob Marley fills the air with a haunting melody and the mass of people ingest...

The Mandeville Police Youth Club will on Saturday (April 4) stage a fun day to support its social outreach programmes in communities across Manchester. The event will feature many popular sport activities, involving teams from across the island. "The Police Youth Club is a large organization in Jamaica, and we will have persons from a wide cross- section of the...

Emancipation Day will be celebrated on August 1, as usual, this year although the date falls on a Saturday. A release issued by the JIS yesterday had quoted Minister of Labour and Social Security, Pearnel Charles, as suggesting that Emancipation Day will be celebrated on Monday, August 3, instead based on the provisions of the schedule of the Holidays (Public...

Hundreds of reggae enthusiasts attended the second staging of the Reggae Symphony concert series, held at the Broward Centre for the Performing Arts (BCPA), Fort Lauderdale, on Sunday (March 29). Included in the line-up were reggae singer, Freddie McGregor; reggae songstress, Marcia Griffiths, and veteran singer and songwriter, Bob Andy. They were accompanied by saxophonist Dean Fraser and Lloyd Parkes...

General Manager of the National Building Society of Cayman, Dunbar McFarlane, has urged young Jamaicans to exhibit a fixity of purpose, as only this would ensure their success, in this climate of economic change and uncertainty. Speaking at the first in a series of Sixth Form Distinguished Lectures, hosted by Knox College, in Clarendon, last week, Mr. McFarlane challenged the...

Minister of State in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Andrew Gallimore, has appealed to Corporate Jamaica to come to the aid of the Caribbean Christian Centre for the Deaf (CCCD), while pledging his Ministry's full support for the cash-strapped institution. "We are going to try, from the Ministry, to see what we will be able to do to...

Jamaica's Minister of Information, Culture, Youth and Sports, the Honourable Olivia "Babsy" Grange, has accepted an invitation from CARICOM to be the Minister of Culture who will "lead, provide expert advice and 'Champion' the many issues on the culture agenda of the CARICOM Region." A letter to Minister Grange from CARICOM Assistant Secretary-General for Human and Social Development, Dr. Edward...

The first ever International Jerk Cooking Challenge, held on March 20 at the Jamaica Inn Hotel in Ocho Rios, St. Ann, proved exciting for participants and patrons. The event, which featured demonstrations by self-taught Jamaican executive chef, Cheryl Smith, of Cheryl's Global Soul in Brooklyn, New York, and United Kingdom-based celebrity chef, Antony Worrall Thompson, was highlighted by a competitive...