JSIF Supports Labour Day Activities in Denham Town

The Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) partnered with the security forces and community groups to undertake Labour Day activities in Denham Town, downtown Kingston, on Tuesday (May 23).

Teams comprised of members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), and the Denham Town Community Development Committee carried out repair and clean-up work at St. Alban’s Primary and Infant School, Edward Seaga Primary School and the Denham Town Police Station.

At Edward Seaga Primary, the day’s activities included painting murals, resurfacing sections of the main driveway, repairing the guardhouse, general painting of the school, and planting trees.

The scope of work undertaken at St. Alban’s Primary included painting walls and playground equipment, cleaning floors and windows, the repair of wooden desks, planting trees, disposal of debris, plastering walls, and creating a partition of classroom for a designated maths resource centre.

Painting and other repairs were also carried out at the Denham Town Police Station by members of the JCF and the Denham Town Curfew Monitors Programme.

Programme Officer at JSIF, Dawn Allison, told JIS News that the activities undertaken in Denham Town were part of the Fund’s Integrated Community Development Programme (ICDP II), which, among other things, aims to promote increased public safety in select, economically vulnerable and socially volatile communities in Jamaica.

Ms. Allison said that activities were undertaken in several other communities across the island that benefit under ICDP II.

“We are also doing cleanup activities in Norwood and Salt Spring in St. James, and Savanna-la-Mar in Westmoreland,” she informed.

She noted that Denham Town is also a Zone of Special Operations (ZOSO) “and so we have done a lot of work in this community”.

Principal of St. Alban’s Primary and Infant, Marjorie Hudson, said the improved environment will enhance learning.

“They [students] will feel as if they are here to learn; the environment will make them want to learn,” she said.

General Secretary, Denham Town Curfew Monitors Programme, Damion Burke, said the community appreciated the work done by JSIF in the area.

“We have a team of 12 persons dispatched across various areas to assist with today’s activities. Persons have been deployed to assist where possible,” he noted.

Labour Day 2023 was observed under the theme: ‘Plant a Tree for Life – Promoting Climate Change Mitigation, Food Security and Road Safety’.