Agents lend a Helping Hand in Jamaica
Before she knows how to pay her own bills, Montego Bay-based vice principal Lecia Allen puts her salary towards running Wings Kidz, an after school program for inner city kids that are falling behind in the classroom.
As part of the Jamaica Tourist Board’s humanitarian fam taking place in destination this week, travel agents from across Canada visited Wings to deliver school supplies and hand over a cheque for $4,400 to help alleviate some of the costs it takes to run the program.
“As en educator you cannot just sit by and see the need in the community and do nothing about it,” Allen said during a cheque handover presentation at the school. “This is by far one of the biggest supports I’ve ever gotten. Travel agents, you are promoting Jamaica. This is the future. They [the children] may look very small now but they are going to be growing up to work in the hotel industry. Thank you. This is my baby, my heartbeat.”
During the cheque presentation, Bonnie Fowler of You Do You Travel with TTAND, who raised the most money for the donation, encouraged everyone to launch their own fundraising initiatives back home.
“As a travel agent I believe it’s our responsibility to leave everywhere we go better than how we found it and that starts with the next generation,” she said.
After she first visited the program that’s not only designed to improve literacy and numeracy but also focuses on character building, dance, music, sports and more, with Canada Jetlines in December, Angella Bennett, regional director, Canada, for the Jamaica Tourist Board knew she wanted to do more to help out.
“On behalf of the Jamaica Tourist Board, and the Canadian travel agent community, it gives us great pleasure to present this small token for this wonderful program and all that you are doing,” Bennett said while handing over the cheque.
Building a school in Dumfries
The other initiative that agents supported this week was the 27th school build by the Helping Hands Jamaica Foundation, an organization seeking to give children a better future through education by building schools in remote and rural areas. The project has impacted the lives of over 15,000 individuals and has assisted in Jamaica’s raising literacy rates.
The foundation’s Natasha Borota told PressToday that it costs a minimum of $250,000 to build a new school.
“These schools aren’t just for education. The whole point is that if there’s a vote that has to happen, you can meet at the school to vote on something. If there’s an emergency like a hurricane you come here to pick up food relief. I’ve had some of the principals reach back to me saying we’re safe, the school is standing, and sometimes those schools have become shelters for families who have lost their homes,” she added. “Once we hand this over to the community, it’s theirs. It’s absolutely not just a school. It’s a community hub.”
Bennett said Helping Hands is one of the main initiates the JTB supports and it has raised over $70,000 for the project.
Travel advisors on the fam lent a helping hand on the project by priming and painting the new Dumfries Primary School ahead of a ribbon cutting ceremony by Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett. They also brought down school supplies for the next school year.
“Thank you to the travel agents that are here today that have taken the time out of their busy schedules to invest in this project with me. I cannot be more proud,” Bennett shared.
For more on the fam trip, don’t miss the next edition of Canadian Travel Press!
