ST. ANDREW:

The HEART Trust/NTA's continued drive to get Jamaicans trained and certified to global standards has been well received in several rural St. Andrew communities.

A team from the HEART Above Rocks Vocational Training Centre (VTC) recently embarked on a competency drive through the staging of an assessment jamboree.

Based on preliminary registration for the event, the jamboree organisers expected to accommodate 300 clients, but were surprised when 750 individuals turned up to register for assessment services.

HEART says, in the first instance, it plans to assess and certify at least 400 of the persons for full National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) programmes in the long term.

The team from the Above Rocks VTC was pleased with the turnout after it embarked on an intensive and aggressive face-to-face initiative, engaging learners in small groups in the hills of rural St. Andrew.

Among the locations visited were bars, hairdressing salons, construction sites, wholesale and retail stores and the populated street corners.

The Above Rocks team has also shared its 'on-the-road' community approach with other HEART Trust/NTA institutions in order to help the agency achieve its stated target of certifying half the Jamaican workforce by April 2009.

- JIS

WESTMORELAND:

The Citizen Security and Justice Programme (CSJP) is marking the launch of its social intervention services in the Westmoreland community of Russia with the roll-out of the popular PeaceMobile, the roaming information fair and Peacevibes concert tomorrow,starting at noon.

A highlight moment will be the handing over of more than $300,000 in back-to-school assistance to 280 needy schoolchildren from the community.

On show will be a number of government and non-government agencies, including the CSJP, which will be highlighting its array of social intervention services now being made available to the residents of Russia.

These include conflict resolution for homes, schools and communities, mentorship programmes, organisational development and Leadership training for community-based organisations, cultural development services, educational programmes, life management skills, skills training/entrepreneurial training, referrals to social services and improvement of community infrastructure.

The package of services is being offered in partnership with the Social Development Commission and a number of other Westmoreland-based agencies as part of a holistic approach to social stability, peace building and sustainable community development that is being hailed as a historic first for the community of Russia.

The Peacevibes concert, headlined by One Third and Tashina McKenzie, begins at 2:00 p.m. with community talent performing items focused on peace, mutual respect, peace, community and national development, reconciliation and forgiveness.

Marching bands from Montego Bay and Kingston are also scheduled to perform.

- Contributed

KINGSTON:

Tamika Peart, a 19-year-old Jamaican student, is looking to the New Year with bright, new eyes, thanks to the support for her family, Canadian eye doctors and some kind Jamaicans living in Toronto.

Peart, who suffered from kerataconus, a deformity of the cornea that causes severe vision defect leading to blindness, received two corneal transplants at the Toronto Eye Surgery Centre last year to treat the condition.

The most recent transplant was performed in December.

Peart, who is in Canada recovering from her surgeries, thanks each financial donor for giving her the gift of sight. "I didn't expect this at all. I am really thankful that people, who don't know me, have gone this far for me," she said.

In the meantime, she has received a six-month extension on her visa from the Canadian government. According to her aunt, the doctors are very impressed with her recovery rate and have indicated that she is about a year ahead of normal recovery.

- JIS

MANDEVILLE, MANCHESTER:

The Mandeville police now have a furnished and computer-equipped building dedicated to the gathering of intelligence to aid in the fight against crime in the parish, courtesy of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce.

The building was handed over during a brief ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Mandeville Police Station on Thursday, which was attended by Minister of National Security, Derrick Smith, who officially opened the facility.

Windalco, which gave the venture its immediate support according to Chamber President Winston Lawson, mostly sponsored the cost of the unit which is estimated to be a little more than $1 million.

The provision of the unit is part of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce's broader effort to assist the police with transportation and closed-circuit television cameras to combat the sharp rise in criminal activity in the parish and particularly the town of Mandeville during the past five years.

- Angelo Laurence

ST. JAMES:

Jamaican-born Canadian resident Christopher A. Harris is among 27 persons to be awarded the Order of Ontario, the highest and most prestigious honour from the province of Ontario in Canada.

The Order of Ontario is presented to residents of the province for 'Excellence and Achievement in any Field'. The investiture ceremony will take place on January 24 at Queen's Park, the seat of the provincial legislature.

Mr. Harris, a former resident of St. James, who is the president of the Jamaica (Ottawa) Community Association, which he co-founded, migrated to Canada more than 40 years ago. He has been an advocate for social justice and the equitable treatment of visible minorities since then and was a founding member of several associations to that end.

Mr. Harris is also the recipient of numerous awards and medals, including Canada's highest national honour, the Order of Canada, which he received about 15 months ago from Governor-General, Michaelle Jean.