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Vulnerable persons to benefit from JMMB Joan Duncan Foundation’s Share the Love initiative

Published:Friday | December 24, 2021 | 12:07 AM
Brendalin Brooks, an officer of the outreach Feed My Sheep Ministries (right), takes a closer look at the items donated by the JMMB Joan Duncan Foundation’s CEO Kim Mair as part of the company’s Share the Love initiative. The occasion was a brief hando
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Brendalin Brooks, an officer of the outreach Feed My Sheep Ministries (right), takes a closer look at the items donated by the JMMB Joan Duncan Foundation’s CEO Kim Mair as part of the company’s Share the Love initiative. The occasion was a brief handover done at the JMMB Group’s head office recently, where several care packages were presented to select charities to benefit vulnerable persons in the Bull Bay community and to students at the Norman Gardens Primary School. The foundation, this year, donated care packages to over 1,100 individuals islandwide, in partnership with charities and the support of their team to the tune of J$4.5 million.

LOVE IS in the air, as the JMMB Joan Duncan Foundation, this year, donated care packages to over 1,100 individuals islandwide with the assistance of JMMB Group team members and in partnership with a wide cross-section of charities. This initiative is a part of the JMMB Group’s Share the Love annual Christmas outreach programme.

Kim Mair, chief executive officer of the foundation, outlined, “Having also supported the PSOJ-led COVID-19 relief efforts, we recognise at first hand the challenges that many individuals have faced and continue to endure as a result of the pandemic. As such, the foundation has sought to share hope and love in the form of these care packages to the most vulnerable individuals in our communities, like the elderly, shut-ins and those individuals that have been unemployed for extended periods, resulting in major hardships. In the true spirit of the season, we want to especially remember to be our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers and share [the] love with each other. The foundation, therefore, invited our wider team to identify individuals and organisations with genuine need in every nook and cranny, so that we can provide a lifeline for these individuals, and give them a glimmer of hope.”

A RIPPLE EFFECT

The 1,100 packages, valued at over J$4.5 million, were stuffed with a variety of food supplies and Christmas cake, to provide a meal to a small family, for a week.

The foundation head noted, “As we empower our team to touch the lives of these vulnerable individuals, by participation in the Share the Love initiative, we also hope to cause a ripple effect of kindness and love among our team, thereby building on this outreach programme, so that they, too, can share love in their own small way in their communities.” Mair added that “as an organisation built on a Vision of Love, and as part of our commitment to being socially responsible, we seek to actively support and engage in outreach efforts, recognising our role as part of the wider chain, especially in the communities in which we operate”.

Kris-Michael Robinson, president of Kiwanis Club of Young Professionals Kingston, Jamaica (KYPKJ), expressed gratitude to the foundation for this donation, which will be used to offset the club’s ‘A Full Plate for Christmas’ outreach, which is geared to provide support, during the Christmas season, to some of the most vulnerable students and their families at the Norman Gardens Primary School and the school’s breakfast programme. Robinson shared, “Several children and their families from the school, which consists of a large population of vulnerable individuals from low socio-economic circumstances, have been plunged further into poverty as a result of unemployment, leaving them in a dire situation, unable to properly satisfy their basic needs. As such, this year, the club wanted to lend support in a more tangible and meaningful way to these children and their families, having previously hosted a Christmas treat for the children in the KYPKJ’s Bring Up Grades programme.”

The president also lauded the foundation for its continued support and partnership that have seen several children at Norman Gardens Primary benefiting.