Jamaica YES, Globe Life fund computer lab for Belfield Primary
Published:Thursday | April 21, 2022 | 12:05 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
THE JAMAICA Youth Education Support (Jamaica YES) non-profit organisation recently gave a boost to the local education sector by partnering with the Texas-based Globe Life Financial Services Company to outfit the St Mary-based Belfield Primary School with a brand new and fully equipped computer lab.
The two organisations presented the school with a symbolic cheque for US$25,010 (J$3.8 million), in a handover ceremony during Globe Life’s Liberty National Division Agency Owner Meeting at the Hyatt Ziva Rose Hall Hotel in Montego Bay, St James. The function was held over a four-day period from April 12 to 15.
Globe Life was founded in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1900 and is presently headquartered in McKinney, Texas. Its donation to Belfield Primary School was done as part of Globe Life’s Make Tomorrow Better charity initiative in collaboration with Jamaica YES.
The initiative also served as part of Jamaica YES’s outreach mandate, which it has upheld since it was founded in Dallas, Texas, in 2004. The organisation has assisted several thousand children over the past 17 years by establishing breakfast and lunch programmes and school transportation, as well as donating books and computers, supplying vegetable seeds for school agricultural initiatives, and provision of eyeglasses for students.
Marty Walker, Jamaica YES’s school outreach coordinator, voiced gratitude for Globe Life’s willingness to assist in meeting Belfield Primary School’s need.
“On behalf of Jamaica YES and the underserved schoolchildren of Jamaica, we thank Globe Life for providing the funds for a computer lab that will not only benefit the students of Belfield Primary School in St Mary, but the entire Belfield community,” said Walker.
“Discussions with Globe Life regarding the funding of the Belfield Primary School’s computer lab began in February 2020. We presented Globe Life with potential projects from all 11 of the schools that we support, and Belfield Primary School was one of three schools that Globe Life decided to fund,” Walker explained, while noting that the names of the other two schools were requested to be withheld.
In expressing thanks for the donation, Michael Calvert, the principal of Belfield Primary School, said that the computer lab had been long in coming for the school’s students.
“Today is a great moment for Belfield Primary School. For years we have been soliciting support to establish a well-needed computer lab at the school, and today, thanks to Jamaica YES and to Globe Life Insurance Company in the United States, we will finally be able to undertake this project,” said Calvert.
“The entire school family is immensely grateful for their generous donation, and I am sure that once the facility is completed, it will not only be to the benefit of the students and teachers of Belfield Primary, but it will also be to the benefit of the entire community and other schools in proximity to Belfield,” Calvert added.