UNESCO Youth Advisory Committee to Stage Seminars

The Youth Advisory Committee of the Jamaica National Commission for UNESCO will be spearheading a series of youth engagement seminars across the island.

Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Senator the Hon. Pearnel Charles Jr., who is the Chairman of the Committee, said that the outreach activities are aimed at encouraging more youngsters to get involved in nation building.

“We want… youngsters to get interested in voting from an early age, interested in community development, mentorship, and volunteerism,” he said.

“All of these things are important if we are going to develop Jamaica. It has to be infrastructure development, economic development… social and community development. So, it is a holistic approach to really building up our country,” he added.

He was speaking to JIS News at a community health fair held at the Glendevon Primary and Junior High School in St. James on Sunday (July 14).

Meanwhile, Senator Charles Jr. noted that the Ministry will be working closely with other ministries and agencies, as well as members of parliament, to ensure that citizens and groups can access programmes geared towards community growth and empowerment.

“If you don’t access the programmes and make the best use of them, then they will just be programmes [but] we want them to be programmes that are successful,” he said.

The health fair was organised by the Glendevon Community Development Committee (CDC) in partnership with the school and the Social Development Commission (SDC).

Scores of residents, including the children and the elderly, benefited from blood sugar and blood pressure tests and other health checks, which were performed by a team of nurses and doctors.

Senator Charles Jr. and his team shared in the day’s activities and donated back-to-school supplies.

“It’s the fourth year we are having this health fair,” President of the Glendevon CDC, Kevin Coy, told JIS News, noting that this year’s event was the largest to date.

“We want to improve each year, and we are happy for the number of persons who came out,” he added.

Glendevon Primary and Junior High School Principal, Audrey Lee-Peynado, said that the institution was pleased to be a partner in the staging of the health fair.

“We believe in partnership, and by doing so, we believe that the community must be involved. This is a way of building our community relations, and Glendevon is a wonderful community and we want to ensure that we keep moving forward,” she said.

Resident Carmeleta Williams said she appreciated the health fair because doctors