Dumfries Primary School gets new building from Helping Hands Jamaica Foundation

WESTERN BUREAU:

The students of Dumfries Primary School in Dumfries, St James, will have expanded classroom spaces when school resumes in September, with the construction of a new school building by the Canadian outreach group, Helping Hands Jamaica Foundation (HHJF).

Over a period of three days, 40 volunteers from HHJF working alongside building contractors from Food For the Poor Jamaica erected the new facility, which will include five classrooms, a washroom, a kitchen, and a staffroom.

The three days of work, which also saw volunteers from the Jamaica Tourist Board taking part, climaxed on Thursday with a ribbon-cutting exercise, which was attended by Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, the Member of Parliament for St James East Central, where Dumfries is located.

Joan Williams-Montague, principal at Dumfries Primary School, expressed gratitude for the new building on behalf of the school’s board of management.

“I am elated, and I feel that we still have good people out there who are looking out for the well-being of humanity. When we asked them for help, the Helping Hands team was willing with open arms to assist us, and we are more than grateful,” said Williams-Montague. “On behalf of the board of management, we give thanks for the work that has been done, and we thank God for His blessings because, if it wasn’t for Him, we would not have gotten here.”

Vice-principal Natalie Pearson-Samuels, also expressed thanks for the work that was done, especially since there had been significant damage to the roof of the original building, which took a hit from Hurricane Beryl.

“This work is needed, and we are grateful, because the roof of this building ... is leaking, worse with the hurricane that just went by us. The zinc sheets have lifted from the roof and they are coming off, so we are delighted that we have this new section that we can utilise for September,” said Pearson-Samuels. “It is a big help, because usually in the countryside, we tend not to get a lot of help, but we are happy that we have been considered.”

POSITIVE EXPERIENCE

Dumfries Primary School was established in 1972. It has a population of 187 students, and was selected for the Helping Hands Jamaica Foundation’s 27th school-building project, which was also sponsored by JerkFest Toronto and the Smith Family School Build organisation.

Helping Hands board member Tyler Smith, who brought 13 family members among the foundation’s 20 volunteers to assist with the project, told The Gleaner that he advocated Dumfries Primary School for the school-building project as he wanted to create a legacy project close to his former home in the Silver Sands community in neighbouring Trelawny. Dumfries is located on the border of St James and Trelawny.

“We have been travelling to Jamaica since the 1980s, and I got involved with the charity four years ago. I did my first school build in Linstead. After that build, I said that I would like to do a Smith family legacy build close to Trelawny, where we have a house in Silver Sands, and we started fundraising about a year ago, and this is where we are today,” said Smith.

“It’s very rewarding, and we are very happy to have boots on the ground and physically making this work happen, not just writing cheques. It has been extremely positive, and we feel blessed to have the opportunity to make this happen. And so far, we have had just an amazing and positive experience,” Smith added.

The Helping Hands Jamaica Foundation was launched in 2006 by its Jamaica-born founder Carl Hayle as a means of providing children across all levels of society with access to good-quality education. Since its formation, the group has worked with Food For the Poor on various school-related works, including its 27 school-building projects to date.

Although the full construction of the Dumfries Primary School’s new building will go beyond the three-day period of the two outreach groups’ involvement, Natasha Borota, the president of the It Factor organisation, which oversees Helping Hands’ fundraising in Canada, hopes that additional outside support will be supplied for the project’s completion.

“This school is in very rough shape, as they are overcrowded, and they have holes in the roof, so they need a lot of work. This is a good start for them, and hopefully they can get some support from people locally or from the government to fix the school that is already here. Then they will be able to use both school buildings, as they have enough students,” said Borota.