Digicel Foundation donates $1.6m to boost youth programme

With its continued focus on empowering Jamaican youth through education, the Digicel Foundation has provided a $1.6-million boost to a critical RISE LIFE youth and community programme in downtown Kingston.

This support facilitated the refurbishing of a multipurpose training centre at the RISE Life Management Services complex on East Street, increasing the beneficiaries from 100 to 150.

RISE (Reaching Individuals through Skills and Education) is a non-governmental organisation providing a range of health, remedial education and training programmes for at-risk youth and family members. The downtown Kingston centre is one of nine such RISE facilities in Corporate Area communities, serving some 2000 inner-city adolescents, young adults and community members through educational, health and vocational-skills programmes. The others are in Allman Town, Fletchers Land, Parade Gardens, Waterhouse, Tower Hill, Riverton City and Drewsland.

According to Major General Robert Neish, executive vice-chair of the Digicel Foundation, "The Foundation is always in support of community resource centres that engage in capacity building for our youth." Speaking at the official opening of the refurbished training centre on Wednesday, November 9, he continued, "We are even more enthused about becoming more involved in downtown, especially since this area will be Digicel's new home."

An oasis

Also speaking at the ceremony, Ronald Thwaites, member of parliament for the area, declared: "RISE is an oasis in Central Kingston! It is no exaggeration that this institution is a major beacon of hope for displaced young persons and older persons. RISE [also] bridges the class divide in this area."

There were testimonials from the young beneficiaries.

• "RISE helped me to achieve 88 per cent average in the GSAT!" exclaimed Camperdown High School student, Zedanne Robotham. "If I can do it, anyone can do it and the staff should ... extend this programme to other communities in Jamaica."
• "RISE taught me to believe in myself," boasted Jason Daye. "The satisfaction I have today is to know that I am a part of this noble and great organisation."

And Sonita Abrahams, executive director of Rise Life summed up Digicel's assistance with similar enthusiasm. "It was a godsend!" she exclaimed. "We were bursting at the seams, as we had triple the amount of adults and adolescents registering for our programmes than we budgeted for. Now we can accommodate them in a comfortable and inviting environment, rather than in the hot, dilapidated room we had before."

Life-Skills Programme

Services provided by RISE LIFE include an Adolescent Educational Enrichment & Life Skills Programme for over 800 children ages eight-14 from eight inner-city communities. RISE LIFE also offers interventions for older youth and adults in the prevention and treatment of addictive disorders, violence and HIV/AIDS prevention, child labour prevention and removal, human rights training, exam preparation and entrepreneurship, and employability skills training.

The RISE complex at East Street has been in operation since August 2011. It will now be buzzing with activity from 8 a.m. - 7 p.m., housing an array of classes for differing age groups. It also provides a meeting place for the Alliance for Youth-Entrepreneurship, Employability and Internship Programme, which currently trains inner-city youth in employable skills and entrepreneurship.