NCB volunteers 'Labour' for literacy

In active support of Labour Day 2011, being recognised today, 250 employees from the National Commercial Bank Jamaica Limited (NCB) will be undertaking two major projects that will see the renovating of libraries and classrooms at St Jude's Primary located in Kingston, and Breadnut Hill Primary School located at Colgate in Ocho Rios, St Ann.

The initiative is aligned with the NCB Foundation's 'Love for Reading Programme', which forms a part of its mandate of "improving literacy on a national level while igniting a passion for reading among the nation's children".

"The day's activities will involve employees, parents, teachers and students, as well as NCB Foundation scholarship recipients, painting the school's libraries, classrooms, as well as beautifying the grounds of the schools," read a release from the foundation.

"... We believe that this is another opportunity for us to actively demonstrate our mantra of building a better Jamaica through our spirit of volunteerism, as well as to intervene on a national level by enabling our nation's children to become avid readers," said Belinda Williams, NCB's group corporate communications manager.

"This Labour Day project has a specific focus that not only delivers on our 'Love for Reading' programme which was initiated to improve literacy at the primary-school level, but also advances the national Labour Day focus of 'It takes a village to raise a child'. NCB's contribution consists of upgrading libraries, donating books, as well as computers to schools identified as critical by the Ministry of Education. In addition, our employees will continue to volunteer their time by having one-on-one 45-minute reading sessions and interactions at schools within the communities in which we operate and form a part."