Mary Bond Early Childhood Development receives $2.8m boost

Barita Investments Limited recently donated $2.8 million towards refurbishing the Mary Bond Early Childhood Development Centre. The institution, which is over 40 years old, has seen many students including Paul Simpson, CEO at Barita, who walked through the gates with the start-up knowledge gained to become successful in today’s society.

Simpson said this was a way of giving back to assist with renovating the institution that made an impact on his life. The donation was used to cover uniforms, school bags, pencil cases, pencils, masks, face shields for teachers and cleaning supplies. In addition, borders are now in place to separate classes to limit the disturbance students would experience from other classrooms; along with following the proper social distancing protocols set by the government.

Principal Mellonie Reid informed that they cater to students from the surrounding communities and help them to become well-rounded individuals both in and outside of the classrooms.

“We were approached by Mr Simpson and he said that we were one of the schools they were considering renovating and we didn’t hesitate to accept their assistance. We are so happy to have been chosen by Barita and for them to do this project for us at a time when many schools will need to make changes to facilitate the new protocols. Their foundation has also stepped in to help us on the academic side, so now Mary Bond is a part of the Barita Education Foundation Group of Schools. Apart from academics, we like to give attention to the children’s social skills and help them develop holistically to survive within society,” said Reid.

The Barita Education Foundation, launched in October 2004, focuses on developing literacy and numeracy at the early childhood level while providing instructor training support to teachers and parents through the parenting arm of the programme. Approximately 23 schools across Kingston and St Andrew have benefited from the programme.