Residents of St. James gathered on the grounds of St. James High School in Montego Bay, recently, to attend the Ministry of National Security’s inaugural ‘Together We Serve You’ Social Services Fair. Staged in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Youth, the fair was aimed at assisting the residents to access social services from organisations such as the Passport...

Local food manufacturers can look forward to increased opportunities in gaining access to overseas markets. This will be made possible through the recent application made by the Jamaica National Agency for Accreditation (JANAAC) to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Accredited Third-Party Certification Programme. This is a voluntary programme in which the FDA recognises accreditation bodies that have...

The Office of the General Secretariat, Organization of American States (GS/OAS) in Jamaica has announced winners of this year’s Art and Poetry Competition. In the Art category, student at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Western Jamaica Campus, Sashane Smith, took first place for her piece, ‘Abandon Ship’, while former student of the St. Andrew High School for Girls,...

The Ministry of Labour and Social Security is increasing efforts to get more eligible persons to sign up for the Government’s new Social Pension Programme. The $800-million initiative, launched last July, targets all Jamaican citizens 75 years and older, who are not currently in receipt of a pension (overseas or local) or any other retirement, old-age or disability benefit or...

After spending much of his earlier years in paediatricians’ offices, between the Bustamante Hospital for Children (BHC) and private medical centres for childhood asthma, Dr. Andrew Burton knew that he would become a paediatrician and set himself on a path to achieve his goal. The young Senior Registrar in the Paediatric Medicine Department at BHC tells JIS NEWS that his...

The Government has established a sports medicine rehabilitation programme, which will ensure that athletes have easier access to medical care and less costly services and equipment. The Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with local and overseas partners to advance the programme. Partners are the Montefiore University Hospital/Albert Einstein Medical School, a...

Representatives of FHI360 and the MultiCare Youth Foundation (MYF) are celebrating the success of the YUTE for Tomorrow programme and the impact it has been having on the lives of the participants. The initiative provides critical interventions for 100 young people, aged 15 to 29, from various communities, who are considered to be at medium and high risk for crime...

Food-borne diseases have threatened human health for centuries. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP), there is an alarming number of persons that are affected by foodborne diseases. It is estimated that one in six Americans (or 48 million people) gets sick, 128,000 are hospitalised, and 3,000 die of food-borne diseases each year. Countries have...

Work is to continue on the public- sector compensation restructuring process during the first quarter of fiscal year 2022/23, which begins on April 1. The exercise, being spearheaded by the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, is intended to overhaul the system of salaries and emoluments in the public service to make it more equitable. The compensation structure currently...