Anchovy High School gets 100 care packages

WESTERN BUREAU:

NEEDY STUDENTS of Anchovy High School, in St James, who would be benefiting from programmes designed to help them if school was in session, were presented with 100 care packages, valued at J$250,000, by the school’s past-student association.

The groceries, which were personally delivered by the association’s members, included packages of rice, sugar, flour, cornmeal, macaroni and cheese, assorted juices, cooking oil, chicken, and tinned items including sausages, sardines, and mackerel.

Albert Ferguson, the president of the past students’ association, told The Gleaner that the group saw the need, which was sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic, and given their commitment to support the institution, took on the much-needed project.

“As past students, we are committed to ensuring that the students of our alma mater are provided with the basic amenities of life so that they can continue to effectively do their schoolwork through distance learning. These items will go towards creating at least 100 care packages,” said Ferguson.

In addition to what is being done at this time, Ferguson said that going forward, the past-student group would be exploring ways in which they could help the school to enhance its information communication technology (ICT) capacity.

ENHANCE TEACHING

“We’re also preparing to enhance the teaching of ICT to all our students, starting at grade seven as we seek to support the administration’s efforts to allow our students to move beyond the difficulty many of them are now facing because they have no laptops, tablets, or desktop computers to facilitate online learning,” added Ferguson.

Lavern Stewart, principal of Anchovy High School, said that the school had initiated a project through which assistance was provided to 30 students and their families. She said the assistance from the past students came at a time when they were looking to provide additional assistance.

“I had wanted to do another outreach for my students after the first effort with the 30 previous care packages, and so I am indeed grateful that the past-student association has jumped in and answered the call I made for items to be brought. I know the students will indeed be grateful, and we know that by now, the items they would have gotten before will have long been depleted,” said Stewart.

“We have some of our students coming in as early as next week, so we’ll be putting packages together for the students at that time. Also, we’ll continue to work on our collaboration with the past-student association, which is very responsive to the needs of the school,” added Stewart.

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