NJCA Embarking on Environmental Education Project

The Northern Jamaica Conservation Association (NJCA), has embarked on an environmental education project.
The project, supported by the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica (EFJ), CHASE Fund, St. Ann Chamber of Commerce and Macmillan Caribbean, is aimed at beautifying the town of Ocho Rios with artwork in an attractive, long-lasting format that will promote appreciation and conservation of the natural environment.
Environmentalist and Artist, Tukula Ntama, told JIS News that the NJCA has been educating groups of students from three target schools in the Ocho Rios area about Jamaica’s unique and diverse flora, fauna and natural environment.
She further informed that the Ocho Rios Primary, Ocho Rios High and the Mar-Jam Preparatory are the schools involved in the project, and would each be designing and painting a mural, with a particular natural theme featuring indigenous flora and fauna, with appropriate conservation messages to raise the level of public awareness and promote positive environmental values.
“We have started to paint the mural at the Ocho Rios High School and the theme of that mural is, ‘Rainforests of Jamaica’. The other themes are: ‘Wonders of Jamaica’, which we are now working on at the Ocho Rios Primary School and the mural theme for Mar-Jam Prep is ‘Marine life’,” she pointed out.
She noted that Ocho Rios High would be the only school with their mural exhibited on the school’s outer walls.
Miss Ntama said the mural for the Ocho Rios Primary School would be exhibited at the Seow’s Supermarket on Main Street, Ocho Rios, while the mural done by Mar-Jam Prep would be housed at the Nuffer Variety Store on Evelyn Street in the area.
She is appealing to members of the public to support the NJCA, as the organization is dedicated to the protection and wise use of natural and cultural resources in Jamaica, through education, advocacy and environmental conservation activities.
The environmental education project is to be completed by July 2005.