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IOJ, Highway 2000 partner to help schools go green

Published:Monday | April 30, 2018 | 12:00 AM
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Contributed
Karen Demetrius (pointing), Highway 2000 East-West’s senior human resources officer, discusses a matter of interest about their garden project with students of Moores Primary and Infant School in Clarendon and their teacher Mr. Young (extreme right, back row).
Contributed
Principal of Rosewell Primary School in Clarendon Wendy McKoy, shows off her skills with the machete by weeding a section of the tomato plot in the school’s garden, while Guillaume Allain, managing director of Highway 2000 East-West, waits his turn.
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Two vegetable gardens were recently handed over to the Rosewell Primary and Moores Primary and Infant schools in Clarendon courtesy of the Natural History Museum of Jamaica, a division of the Institute of Jamaica (IOJ), in partnership with Highway 2000 East-West.

Both schools, which are located along a corridor of the highway, also received gardening tools such as machetes, wheelbarrows, and shovels from Highway 2000 East-West, along with a vegetable garden booklet published by the Natural Museum, funded by Highway 2000.

This was the latest instalment in a joint partnership designed to help children get an early appreciation for and under-standing of soil conservation and biodiversity, among other environmental issues, through gardening. As a result of this partnership, students and teachers at five schools have been actively engaged in "growing what they eat, and eating what they grow".

In a press release issued last week, the IOJ pointed out that the gardens are established and maintained by both entities until they reach a stage where the school can fully take over, usually when the plants are well established with a proper irrigation system in place. Staff members of the museum also dedicate time to teaching the students about biodiversity, using the crops and garden setting for effective skills and knowledge transference.

The objectives of the project are for the students to become more aware of nature and the role humans play in its conservation and to develop an appreciation of farming.

Vivian Crawford, executive director of the IOJ, implored each student to plant at least one fruit tree in the hope that over time, they or their friends and relatives would enjoy the fruits of their labour.

Guillaume Allain, managing director of Highway 2000 East-West, who has been working on this project since its inception, committed to increasing the number of schools involved, in keeping with the organisation's mandate to raise biodiversity awareness in communities through which the highway runs.

Education Officer for region six Jeneive Williams charged the students to expand their career options by researching the many lucrative professions within the agriculture sector.