FISH honours Joyce Robinson, Fr Grenier

Dr Joyce Robinson and Father Louis Grenier, distinguished public servant and clergyman, respectively, have been honoured by the Foundation for the International Self Help Development (Ja) Limited (FISH).

The non-profit charitable organisation, this year celebrating 25 years of service to lower income groups and the poor, particularly in the provision of medical, dental and eyecare services, presented awards to Dr Robinson and Fr Grenier at their 25th anniversary dinner at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel on Wednesday, March 24.

Special recognition was also accorded Professor Emeritus of the University of Waterloo, Professor Murchison Callender, who has been volunteering his services during annual visits to FISH for over 20 years.

Dr Robinson is a distinguished public servant who has contributed significantly in the areas of library service, literacy, education and vocational training. She is a former director of the Jamaica Library Service and the Jamaican Movement for the Advancement of Literacy (JAMAL); general manager of the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation and managing director of the Human Employment and Resource Training (HEART) Trust.

History of service

Fr Grenier, a native of Boston, Massachusetts, has served the Jesuit Apostolate in Jamaica since 1953 and has led the FISH board since the inception of the organisation. At 91, he serves on 35 committees spanning educational institutions, religious organisations and charities, social and vocational bodies. He is a former chaplain of the University of the West Indies, Mona, former Rector of St Mary's Church, Above Rocks, St Catherine and has served as associate pastor of several others including Spanish Town, St Peters and Paul and Holy Cross. He taught at St George's College for several years.

FISH, opened in 1985 in Papine, St Andrew, has served over a million Jamaicans in the Papine and surrounding communities. The clinic was conceived around the concept of self-help - helping others to help themselves through sharing - by the late Dr Louis Strathmore Grant, a former Professor Emeritus in the Department of Microbiology, University of the West Indies.

The FISH Clinic provides sound medical, dental, eye and preventive health-care services at rates far lower than other public or private institutions, through a dedicated cadre of employed and volunteer medical personnel. The clinic also relies heavily on gifts of resident and visiting volunteers' time and skills, supplies, equipment and capital as well as funding assistance from local and international organisations.