Salada helps with the rebuilding efforts of children’s home

The Jamaica National Children’s Home (JNCH) has received $500,000 from Salada Foods Jamaica to assist with its rebuilding efforts following a fire last August.

The home housed 41 boys and girls between ages seven and 18.

In expressing gratitude for the donation, Director of the JNCH, Nadeen Waugh, said the funds will help to rebuild the home.

She said the goal is to start reconstruction this year so the children can resettle into a more comfortable facility. No timeline has been given for the completion, which is estimated to cost approximately $150 million.

“We want to say a big thank you to Salada and we are so happy that corporate Jamaica is still supporting and still remembers us after six months,” Waugh said.

General Manager of Salada Foods Dianna Blake-Bennett said the donation is part of Salada’s continued efforts to rise up and support the care and development of the nation’s youth.

“We are here because we, like the rest of the public, are aware that the home was devastated by fire. As a good corporate citizen, we recognise that contributing to the reconstruction of the home for these 41 children is critical. In these formative years when stability is necessary for the development of personality and character, playing our part to get the wards and charges back home is the least we at Salada could do,” Blake-Bennett said.

Blake-Bennett, who toured the razed property in Papine, St Andrew, invited other members of corporate Jamaica to contribute to the rebuilding efforts.

In the meantime, the wards of JNCH have been relocated to the Homestead Place of Safety in Stony Hill.

Waugh said the children have been adjusting to a longer daily commute to school but are anxious to return to their original home.

The administration of the home continues to be run from the JNCH site.

“We operate from Papine and move things to and from Stony Hill as it is needed. It’s a different style of management that we are using, but so far we have been doing well, and we continue to improve,” Waugh said.

The JNCH was started in 1972 by the National Children’s Home, UK, to provide a loving, caring and stable home to orphans and abandoned children, as well as children with severe mental or physical disabilities whose parents are unable to provide proper care.