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Digicel Foundation urges groups to seek out funding network

Grants awarded for 14 projects across the island

Published:Wednesday | November 16, 2022 | 12:07 AMSashana Small/ Staff Reporter
Jodi-Ann McFarlane, senior operations manager at Digicel Foundation; Marie Hall, project manager, Lewisburgh Primary and Infant School; Milicent Buchanan, deputy board chair,  Lewisburgh Primary and Infant School; students Kevon Parkes and Kaylee Atkinson;
Jodi-Ann McFarlane, senior operations manager at Digicel Foundation; Marie Hall, project manager, Lewisburgh Primary and Infant School; Milicent Buchanan, deputy board chair, Lewisburgh Primary and Infant School; students Kevon Parkes and Kaylee Atkinson; Vivian Riley, community member; and school principal Paul Anthony Gobourne pose with their grant commitment cheque on Tuesday at the Digicel Headquarters in downtown Kingston.
From left: Vice-president of the Old Folly Youth Club Alvin Gibson, president of the Old Folly Youth Club George Brown, Digicel Foundation CEO Charmaine Daniels, and Community Development Manager Digicel Foundation Miquel ‘Steppa’ Williams pose after s
From left: Vice-president of the Old Folly Youth Club Alvin Gibson, president of the Old Folly Youth Club George Brown, Digicel Foundation CEO Charmaine Daniels, and Community Development Manager Digicel Foundation Miquel ‘Steppa’ Williams pose after signing a $2 million grant commitment.
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Local clubs and associations are being encouraged to seek funding through grants to enable them to better serve their communities. The call came from Miguel ‘Steppa’ Williams, community development manager at the Digicel Foundation.

He stressed the importance of community organisations registering with entities such as the Social Development Commission (SDC), the government agency responsible for supporting community-based initiatives to gain better access to funding opportunities.

“I say to communities, keep connected to your social network. When the SDC dem come in, follow our websites, and not only the Digicel Foundation, scope out, open your horizons, look at other corporate foundations out there,” he said.

Williams was speaking at the handover ceremony of Digicel Foundation Build Jamaica Grant last Tuesday.

The $28-million grant, which was launched in correlation with the Jamaica 60 Independence celebrations, saw one recipient chosen from each parish. Each recipient received $2 million to fund a specific project. Of the 14 grant recipients, eight are education focused, two agricultural focused and four are community and youth based focused.

Williams said the foundation received more than 200 grant applications, noting that the grants will fund projects targeting at-risk youth, school development, agricultural initiatives, and skills training.

“It’s a good variety of projects that we see the need for, and we would have done the spread across all parishes so all parishes are touched from this grant,” he said.

The Old Folly Youth Club in Discovery Bay, St Ann, was one of the recipients. Its vice-president, Alvin Gibson, said the money received will be used to expand their poultry business and cultivate an environment which will see the club becoming a viable social enterprise.

“We’re working towards establishing a revolving sustainable system. We have a demand for that [eggs and poultry] we’re in between the hotels along that line. Our community is about 850 people so with the demand for meat, we know that we can supply that market. The eventual plan is to give the meat at a subsidised cost to the community,” he told The Gleaner.

He said his 60-member club has been able to impact their community over the years due to their diligence in seeking out and applying for grant funding.

“Some of them [grants] may not be agricultural oriented, but we have sports, culture, we look at the needs of the people and we try to see how best we can partner with them. We heard of this and we applied and we were successful,” he said.

Meanwhile, principal of the Lewisburgh Primary and Infant school in St Mary, Paul Anthony Gobourne, told The Gleaner that he has already earmarked a space on the school’s compound to build a resource centre with the money from the grant.

“We are able to complete our resource centre that we have dreamt about for years, we are able to do a little improvement on the infant department area, and improve the office space of the principal. But I am more elated about the resource centre that we’ll be setting up because that will directly impact the students,” he said.

He shared that community members in the small rural district have already expressed interest in helping to build the resource centre.

And this, according to chairperson of the Digicel Foundation, Jean Lowrie Chin, is one of the ways in which the foundation measures its impact.

“The success of our project is how many lives we touch and how many jobs we generate, and we are so happy with the result. We don’t hear enough about the good Jamaicans, caring and generous, giving of their own time, so we want to partner with those Jamaicans to help develop our country,” she said.

As at September 2022, a total of $6.6 billion has been spent by the Digicel Jamaica Foundation.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com