Courts makes surprise Christmas donation to SOS Children’s Village
Published:Saturday | December 23, 2023 | 12:08 AMAinsworth Morris/Staff Reporter
When Jason Brown, village director at the SOS Children’s Village, was invited to the Courts Dear to Dream Scholarship Awards Ceremony in September, he made sure to intersperse his address with points touching on the needs of houses he supervises with children in state care.
Unbeknown to some at the time, the Unicomer Group – operators of Jamaica’s multimillion-dollar giant furniture and appliances store – took note of his wishes, and three months later, he was surprised with nine laptops, nine tablets, nine microwaves and three deep freezers valued at more than $600,000 to retrofit the cottages at the SOS Children’s Village in Stony Hill, St Andrew.
“We have a growing population of young children and adolescents who are doing skills training, their Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate [exams], their Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations [courses], their City & Guilds exams, and we don’t have the facility to care to their educational needs fully,” Brown told The Gleaner.
He noted that completing school-based assessments, research and other computer- or Internet-dependent coursework proved challenging.
Affording them the Internet is one thing, Brown said, but they need devices to access it.
“The investment in their educational aids will see us meeting their needs on a greater individual level, as opposed to sharing our resources, because at times, we (administrators) have been sharing our personal laptops to aid them in their studies and research,” Brown said.
“We also hope that this will allow us to see improved results from the children with their projects, their assignments, and online classes,” he said.
Edwin Vaquerano, managing director of Unicomer Jamaica Limited, said it would be remiss of Courts to not grant the wishes of one of Jamaica’s children’s homes.
“We are pleased to assist Jason and the over 50 children he currently has under his care with new appliances and devices they need for their daily needs and activities. We hope that the gifts will assist them with achieving their personal goals for 2024, and allow them to become the productive persons they are aspiring to be,” Vaquerano said.