FOOD FOR THE POOR BRINGS GIFT OF NEW EARLY CHILDHOOD INSTITUTION TO ACCOMPONG

Quadripartite Partnership Leads To Establishment Of Accompong Basic School

Accompong, St. Elizabeth – March 20, 2013: Food For The Poor today officially opened a new Basic School in Accompong, St. Elizabeth, which it constructed to replace the derelict structure of the former Basic School serving that community. This is the first early childhood facility in St. Elizabeth to be constructed and officially opened under the Food For The Poor Jamaica 50 Programme, which seeks to construct 50 early childhood institutions in 50 months, in observance of Jamaica’s 50th year of independence.

 

The Accompong Basic School marks the 9th early childhood institution to be constructed within the ambit of the FFP Jamaica 50 Programme. The school was built as a result of a quadripartite partnership among Food For The Poor, Accompong, Grand Jamaica Homecoming 2012 and the Ray Chang Foundation – based in Canada.

 

(From right) Andrew Mahfood (from right), Chairman, Food For The Poor (FFP) Jamaica, Hon. Ronald Thwaites, Education Minister; and Daynia Miles, Principal, Accompong Basic School; do the ribbon cutting exercise to signal the official opening of the institution on Wednesday, March 20. 

(From left) Samantha Mahfood, Executive Director, FFP Canada; Donette Chin-Loy Chang, President, Jamaica Homecoming Canada; students of Accompong Basic School;  .C. Hutchinson, Member of Parliament, North Western St Elizabeth; and Ferron Williams, Colonel of the Accompong Maroons.

Andrew Mahfood (from right), Chairman, Food For The Poor (FFP) Jamaica; Samantha Mahfood, Executive Director, FFP Canada and His Excellency Robert Ready, the High Commissioner of Canada to Jamaica (on ladder) help to paint the Accompong Basic School, St. Elizabeth.

 

Andrew Mahfood, Chairman, Food For The Poor Jamaica told participants at the opening ceremony that his charity is passionate about assisting Jamaica to create a legacy of easier access to education for the nation’s children, by way of the FFP Jamaica 50 Programme.

 

“Every child in this island deserves nothing less than an opportunity to gain education of the very highest quality,” he remarked.   

 

Mr. Mahfood announced that the new Accompong Basic School has three classrooms which can be subdivided into additional learning spaces, sickbay, teachers’ office, kitchen and bathrooms. “We have also furnished the school with beautiful, child-friendly furniture, which will enhance the creative, learning environment for the youngsters,” he said. “The 37 students on roll are benefiting from the new facilities, but the school can now accommodate up to 100 students.”

 

The FFPJ Chairman expressed the wish that the school would become a hub of successful activities, not just for the school population, but also for the wider Accompong community. “I encourage every adult citizen of Accompong, to live service-oriented lives for the benefit of the children of this community and the nation in general. Remember, Jamaica is counting on you to be positive mentors for the children!” Mr. Mahfood encouraged.

 

The construction of the Accompong Basic School is another chapter in FFP’s long and wonderful rapport with the community. Over the years, the charity has built housing units for some residents, as well as distributed food and clothing supplies, to persons in need. FFP also built a sanitation unit at the Accompong Primary School, and supplied the institution with furniture.

 

Addressing the opening ceremony, Samantha Mahfood, Executive Director, FFP Canada, commended Grand Jamaica Homecoming 2012 and the Ray Chang Foundation for their financial support to the construction of the school. “Food For the Poor Canada works to garner support from and inform Canadians about the work that we are doing in Jamaica and across the Caribbean and Latin America - FFP supports 17 countries across the region; we can only do it with the help of people and organizations like all of you here today,” said Ms. Mahfood.

 

She also expressed appreciation to His Excellency Robert Ready, the High Commissioner of Canada to Jamaica, for his support of the work of FFP.  Ms. Mahfood announced that Canada remains one of Food For The Poor’s strongest bilateral partners in the charity’s social support programmes in Jamaica and the wider region.   The FFP Canada Executive Director urged parents to help their children use the educational opportunities available and also to help them to grow strong in all areas of their lives.

 

Hon. Ronald Thwaites, Minister of Education and keynote speaker at the event, underscored the importance of the nation increasing expenditure on early childhood education as a way of fast-tracking the country’s development. He said his ministry will be increasing its financial commitment to early childhood education this year. “About three per cent of the education budget is on basic education. This year we are putting $1 million more on basic education,” Mr. Thwaites disclosed.

 

Minister Thwaites urged the Accompong community to also use the new basic school as a parenting centre so that parents can come in and discuss their needs and solutions together. He pledged that the ministry is willing to do its part in assisting the school in any way it can.

 

Pointing to the value of cultural education, Mr. Thwaites disclosed that the ministry is putting plans in place to ensure that within two years, material on maroon culture will be incorporated into the civics curriculum.

 

Donette Chin-Loy Chang, President, Jamaica Homecoming Canada and Hon. Douglas Orane, Honorary Patron, Grand Jamaica Homecoming 2012, pledged their organisations’ ongoing support for the Accompong Basic School. Echoing similar sentiments, the two noted that Jamaica will only experience true development when Jamaicans at home and abroad invest in the education of preschoolers. During the official opening, both donor organizations provided each student of the Accompong Basic School with a school bag and educational supplies.

 

Daynia Miles, Principal of the institution, expressed appreciation to FFP and the donors for the construction of the new school. She and other members of the school community presented the stakeholders responsible for the project with cultural tokens of appreciation.

 

Also in attendance at today’s event were His Excellency  Robert Ready, Canadian High Commissioner to Jamaica; Hon. Ray Chang, Patron, Grand Jamaica Homecoming ; J.C. Hutchinson, Member of Parliament, North Western St Elizabeth;  Ferron Williams, Colonel of the Accompong Maroons and Keisha Lawson, Development Officer , Early Childhood Commission.

 

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Food For The Poor (FFP)-Jamaica is the largest charity organization in the country.  Food For The Poor Inc., located in Florida, USA, was named by The Chronicle of Philanthropy as the largest international relief and development organization in the United States. It is an interdenominational Christian agency that does much more than feed the millions of hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. FFP provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance, with more than 96% of all donations going directly to programmes that help the poor. For more information visit our Web site at www.foodforthepoorja.com  

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Contact:

Erica James-King, PROComm, T: 926-6740 or 564-5277

Petri-Ann Henry, Food For The Poor, T:  984-5005 or 564-2886