Inner City Children In Montego Bay Receive Back-To-School Supplies

The St. James office of the Peace Management Initiative (PMI), recently presented back-to-school supplies to hundreds of children from inner-city communities in Montego Bay.

The presentation was made to children from Norwood, Granville, Belmont, Cambridge, Rosemount, Barrett Town, Lilliput, Bogue Hill, Ramble Hill, New Ramble and Catadupa.

In an interview with JIS News, Chairman of the PMI St. James, Reverend Everton Jackson, said despite the economic crunch affecting the agency, great effort was made to ensure that the supplies were obtained and presented to the students, in order to make their back-to-school experience a pleasant one.

“We at the St. James PMI want to assist children from our adopted communities in furthering their education. We are fully aware that around this time of the year there are other agencies doing back-to-school projects, but given the fact that there are so many persons in need, our participation is an attempt to complement the other donors,” he said.

Reverend Jackson said the PMI is strong in its view that it is better to prevent (disorder and criminality), than to intervene, and the back-to-school initiative represents an aspect of the agency’s prevention thrust.

“We want to ensure that our children are kept off the streets. The communities that we have targeted are those which are of concern to us. We are endeavouring to ensure that we play our part in giving these children an opportunity to go to school,” he told JIS News.

The Chairman said that although the number of children who received assistance this year was below the 300 who got last year, efforts were made to carefully select this year’s recipients.

“This year we had a budget of $80,000, which is a significant reduction compared to last year. However, we did all the necessary checks to ensure that the support went to the most needy,” he said.

Ipaco Campbell, a Fifth grade student from Retrieve All Age in Catadupa,

St. James, thanked the PMI in St. James for its help, noting that the support could not have come at a better time.

“My parents have been struggling to find the funds to purchase books and a school bag for me. I want to thank the PMI for their generous support, and on behalf of those who got supplies, we are committed to do our best in school.”