UTech student makes donation to The Westmoreland Infirmary

The Westmoreland Infirmary has received a donation of toiletries and other items from Geri-Ann Miller, a student at the University of Technology Jamaica. Among the items donated were sheets, sanitisers, detergent, soaps, adult diapers and bed pads.

The items were handed over at the infirmary on Thursday, December 28.

They were acquired through donations of cash and kind from mostly family members and friends and are valued about $85,000.

Assistant poor relief officer for the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation, Angella Morris, expressed gratitude for the donation.

“On behalf of the Corporation and the Poor Relief Department, I would like to say thank you for all these gifts and we will make the best use of them for our residents and our outdoor poor,” she said.

For her part, Miller noted that the initiative was a family effort, as it was her parents’ suggestion.

“I was kind of bogged down with schoolwork this year, so I wasn’t really in the brainstorming. My parents came up with the idea to give back to the infirmary and I thought it was a great idea, so this is a family affair, and I am very appreciative of their support,” she said.

“In previous years it was family members and close friends who contributed, but for this year it was extended to the wider community, business associates, church affiliates and my parents’ colleagues, so it was very much a community effort, and I am very appreciative of the support I was given,” Miller added.

She said her gift-giving initiative started in 2011 when her family returned to Jamaica after having lived in the United States for several years.

The 21-year-old chemical engineering student was inspired by the work of the Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian charity based in the US, which donates to less-fortunate children across the world.

This began a yearly tradition of gifting various items to children at the Savanna-la-Mar Hospital’s paediatric ward at Christmastime.

Miller donated nebulisers to the hospital in February of this year to assist children with respiratory issues on the paediatric ward.