Utility Companies Partner with Food for the Poor to Host Back-to-School Fair in St. Elizabeth

Three of the island’s utility companies partnered with Food For the Poor to host a Back-to-School Fair for residents of St. Elizabeth, on August 9.

The parish was hardest hit by the recent passage of Hurricane Beryl, which impacted the island on July 3.

Partnering with the charity organisation were the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) Foundation, the Flow Foundation and the Digicel Foundation.

At the fair, held at the B.B. Coke High School in Junction, St. Elizabeth, several government agencies were also present to offer their services to the residents.

These included Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ), HEART/NSTA Trust, the National Water Commission (NWC), the Registrar General’s Department, and others.

In an interview with JIS News, Chief Executive Officer of the Digicel Foundation, Charmaine Daniels, said the organisation wanted to assist children from the area to be prepared for going back to school.

“We gave backpacks to the kids; we have school supplies in the backpacks, so we gave that out with [call] credit and some prizes,” she said.

Ms. Daniels noted that prior to the passage of the hurricane on July 3, Digicel was in the process of starting two smart rooms for Santa Cruz Primary and Black River Primary schools in the parish.

“Black River Primary was damaged; it sustained some roof damage, so we are waiting on that to be fixed so we can start the smart room there, but Santa Cruz has been started and we are hoping to have it ready in about six weeks’ time for the students when they go back to school,” she said.

For her part, Senior Vice President for Customer Experience and Commercial at the JPS, Pia Baker, outlined that the back-to-school fair was a continuation of the utility companies coming together to aid in the restoration of the parish.

“We depend on the services of Digicel and Flow to get our networking done internally as well as being able to provide support to our grid, and likewise we power their towers and cell sites. So, this is not the first time we are having the partnership but what we have done is ramped it up,” she said.

Ms. Baker outlined that while the company continues to work to restore power to the parish, “we want to be able to provide some parallel support to the residents of St. Elizabeth”.
Public Relations Manager for Flow, LeVaughn Flynn, underscored the importance of the entities coming together to help the citizens.

“[Back-to-school] is one of the critical moments for parents. As August rolls into September the bills pile up [as they have to] get uniforms, text books and so on. So, all three Foundations came together, and we are each contributing something to these families that will help to ease the burden of back to school,” Mr. Flynn said.

Last month, all three Foundations also came together to give care packages to residents in sections of St. Elizabeth.