Issa Trust Foundation gifts schools with one million wipes
Published:Wednesday | May 4, 2022 | 12:07 AM
As the nation celebrates Child Month, the Issa Trust Foundation donated one million hand sanitising wipes valued at $6 million.
The wipes were handed over on April 19 to the Ministry of Education and Youth for distribution among students across the nation.
Paul Issa, chairman, Issa Trust Foundation, said the charitable arm of the Couples Resort, which is a US non-profit, was pleased to make the handover.
“We set ourselves up in 2005, 17 years ago, and our focus has always been the children of Jamaica. Our main areas that we work in are paediatric healthcare and education. In this instance, we’re dealing with both health and education,“ Issa said, before officially handing over the items.
He added: “We hope these wipes will aid in the ultimate prevention of this pandemic of COVID-19.”
Dr Tamika Benjamin, national mathematics coordinator and who accepted the donation on behalf of the ministry, said a container of antiseptic wipes may seem simple to some, but it is a significant gift, to particularly those who need it most.
“Minimising the spread of the virus within the school population is one important step. We’re looking forward to the end of the pandemic, but we also have to continue to take some of those basic measures of sanitisation, to ensure that our students and teachers can remain safe,” she said.
“The pandemic would have forced us, in the initial months, to close our schools; and I think we are all aware of the impact it has had on our children, particularly on those who are on the lower end of our socio-economic strata,” she added.
The acquisition and shipment of the wipes were made possible through the help of Bridge of Life, an independent non-profit, public charity organisation in Denver, Colorado.