Diaspora Members Recognised For Service

Six members of the Jamaican Diaspora have been bestowed with the Governor General’s Achievement Award for Excellence for 2015, for outstanding accomplishments and service.

The awardees are: Michelle Brumley and Kingsley Gilliam – Canada; Lisa Soares and Claudette Powell – United States of America (USA); and Nathaniel Peat and Gloria Leslie – United Kingdom (UK).

They have been recognized for achievements attained through community and social service, and volunteerism. Three of them, Misses Brumley and Soares, and Mr. Peat, are under 35 years of age.

The presentations were made on June 16 by Governor-General, His Excellency the Most Hon. Sir Patrick Allen, during an awards luncheon at the Sixth Biennial Diaspora Conference, currently underway at the Montego Bay Convention Centre, in St. James, and formed part of the activities marking Diaspora Day.

Five of the recipients were on hand to receive their awards, with Jamaica’s High Commissioner to the UK, Her Excellency Aloun Ndombet-Assamba, collecting on behalf of Mrs. Leslie.

In his address, the Governor-General commended the awardees for their work in promoting Jamaica.

“I am very pleased to increase the number of awardees to include three young persons who have been rendering outstanding community service. Congratulations to each of the six awardees. Your lives have been ennobled by your chosen paths of excellence and of service to your fellowmen. I hope that those you have helped and have motivated have been endued with the positive qualities for which we honour you,” he said.

Noting that Jamaicans are committed to striving for excellence at every level of society “wherever we are planted,” the Governor-General encouraged them “to remain visible, both at home and in the Diaspora, so that ours will be the profile which defines Jamaica.”

He thanked the conference delegates for their support and commitment to the Diaspora movement.

The Governor-General singled out members of the Diaspora in Canada and Florida for their support of his ‘I Believe Initiative’, who spearheaded the provision of scholarships for young people in Jamaica to access training in animation, currently offered by the Caribbean Institute for Media and Communication (CARIMAC), at the University of the West Indies (UWI).

“They sincerely appreciate the fact that you have helped to give them new opportunities for income generation. Thank you for your consistent support for the objectives of our Diaspora movement and for keeping the flame alive in the period between the biennial conferences,” the Governor-General added.

The six-day conference, which concludes on Thursday (June 18), is being held under the theme: ‘Jamaica and the Diaspora: Linking for Growth and Prosperity’.