When Davor Bailey, president of Volunteers Incorporated, was not elected as The University of the West Indies, Mona’s Guild external affairs committee (EAC) chairperson 14 years ago, he was determined not to let his charitable ideas go to waste. He began sharing his passion for volunteerism and reviving project ideas from his campaign with other students, hoping to inspire them to volunteer. After persuading seven students to join him, Bailey secured support for his group from the Poor Relief Department of the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation.
“I was a social science, economics and political major at the time, and I’m big on volunteerism. I was trying to give back from that time actually. At the time [had I won the EAC chairperson position] I would have been in charge of having outreach initiatives for students to engage in, and [because I wasn’t chosen] I thought that there was more to be done, so we started off then with one of our flagship projects that we did with the Poor Relief Department in downtown [Kingston] and we had a home work centre on a Saturday. We [then] started a mentorship programme. We started a computer room built that was funded by CHASE Fund,” Bailey, who grew up in Barking Lodge, St Thomas, told GoodHeart.
After graduating from UWI and the group’s separation, Bailey stopped volunteering with university students. However, he was inspired to return to giving back when a child he had helped in the programme years earlier stopped him downtown and gave him a hug.
“I decided to kind of put a robust structure in place and go national, because I thought that project was very impactful, and then I said to myself, ‘Let’s see how we can revive the project and initiative’ and as such Volunteers Inc came to be as it is now.”
Volunteers Inc was then officially started and registered in 2022.
“Volunteers Incorporated is now a charity that is dedicated towards providing youth across Jamaica with an avenue to contribute in their communities with impactful projects, and we now have a core volunteer group between the ages of 25 and 40 years, and we identify projects we consider to be impactful and far-reaching and we galvanise other volunteers while seeking funding and partnerships,” Bailey explained.
In recent months, Volunteers Inc has aimed to help 2,000 children through its 2000 Visions Project by providing free eye tests and glasses. Bailey, who has a visual limitation himself, understands the struggle of not being able to afford a good pair of glasses, which is why he is passionate about this initiative.
“I started UWI thinking I could see perfectly, then I realised that as I went into second year, I had to go closer and closer to the board or [at the] front of the lecture hall, but I didn’t pay much attention to it; and one day I was walking pass volunteers doing free eye examination on campus, and I decided to go in and get a test done... and the results came back and my eyes were terrible,” Bailey, now 34 years of age, said, adding, “I didn’t know it was that bad and they gave me a prescription and the frame was expensive, and I had no money to purchase it at that time. I never came from a privileged background where I could afford that. What I had to do, was to go downtown and buy a frame for $300 and have them put the lens in it, and it’s a family member who purchased the lens which was still expensive, and then every week the frame broke because it was not a sturdy frame and I didn’t have insurance to pay for the correction.”
He believes the 2000 Visions Project is valuable because it will enhance the educational opportunities and quality of life for the youth it benefits.
The programme now offers free eye tests and prescription glasses to students, in partnership with the National Education Trust (NET). NET selects the schools and works with administrators to identify visually impaired and visually challenged children. These students are then encouraged to register online through Volunteers Inc’s website or Instagram profile.