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Digicel Foundation delivers $28 million in funding ahead of holidays

Published:Friday | December 10, 2021 | 12:10 AM
Charmaine Grant, a senior member of the Herbert Morrison Technical High School Alumni Association, was excited to stop by the Digicel Foundation’s downtown headquarters. The Alumni Association secured $2 million in funding for the physical education prog
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Charmaine Grant, a senior member of the Herbert Morrison Technical High School Alumni Association, was excited to stop by the Digicel Foundation’s downtown headquarters. The Alumni Association secured $2 million in funding for the physical education programme at the St James-based institution through the foundation’s $28 million Build Jamaica Grant programme.

Digicel Foundation has delivered on its promise to fund grants in each parish with $28 million in funding through the Build Jamaica grant programme. Nine of the 14 community-based organisations received cheques for $2 million each on December 3 when they stopped by the Digicel global headquarters in downtown Kingston.

The Digicel Foundation launched its call for applications in July 2021, with over 75 submissions from across the island. Groups from Kingston, St Andrew, St Catherine, Portland, St James, Westmoreland, St Mary, St Ann and Clarendon were in the first cohort which collected cheques.

“In our 20 years here in Jamaica, we’ve invested more than US$40 million in communities,” explained Jabbor Kayumov, chief executive officer of Digicel Jamaica and a member of the foundation’s board of directors. “I should say that we all feel very proud of this because as we’ve grown as a business, we’ve also been able to grow the communities we serve.”

The projects cover a range of initiatives to address the needs in local communities.

“We think that when we can bring a group of youths together in the same space to sit, share ideas, and to develop their interpersonal skills and talents, we are actually creating a better future for them,” said Jovaughnie Byfield, project manager at St Mary Cadet Corps where they will be developing a multipurpose community space focused on sports.

Sports development is not the only thing on the agenda for the new grantees. Digicel Foundation has been a leading player in the funding of social enterprises since the launch of the Back to Roots campaign in 2013. Since then, the foundation has continued to fund social enterprises through its grant programmes.

The South Clarendon Area Community Development Commission is one of the social enterprises which will benefit from this year’s funding as it seeks to relaunch a salt production initiative. “We decided we could find employment for 40 youths by reviving this project,” explained Chairman Winston Maragh. “We will filter the salt water into ponds and allow it to air dry and solar dry, to produce lumps of salt. This can be sold to factories for manufacturing purposes, and is also used for table salt.”