Take Back Communities From Criminals – Dr. Davies

Minister of Finance and Planning, Dr. Omar Davies, has appealed to Jamaicans to work together to take back communities from criminal elements for the sake of the nation’s children.
“Violence affects every aspect of life. People just cannot go to church and some people just cannot even go and have a drink, but worst of all, the students are punished,” he noted.
“I just want to tell the perpetrators that we are taking the fight back to them. We are going to take back our communities. We are not doing it just because it right, but we are going to do it for the children’s sake,” said Dr. Davies as he addressed the opening and dedication of the Iris Gelly Primary School’s library, reading room and auditorium yesterday (May 10) in South St. Andrew.
Former Prime Minster, P.J. Patterson, who attended the opening ceremony, said that the community of South St. Andrew should be “a garden where the talents of our young citizens can flourish and bloom.”
He noted that the construction of the new, state-of-the-art facilities at the school “represents the fulfilment of the promise by the current administration, to ensure that the children in this community are provided with the physical plant of the requisite quality in which they can enjoy the advantages that only a sound education can provide.”
In the meantime, Molly Russell, Education Officer for Region One, encouraged the students to use the facilities to enhance their education. “I am appealing to the students and parents to make use of these new facilities that can be used to enhance literacy, especially the library and the reading room. Literacy is the ability to read and write, and when one is literate a world of opportunities awaits that person,” Mrs. Russell noted.The Iris Gelly Primary School was founded in 1976 and is named for a community stalwart, social worker and justice of the peace.
Construction of the Iris Gelly reading room, library, and auditorium was funded by the Digicel Foundation, Tank Weld Limited, Scotia foundation and Caribbean Cement Company Limited.