MONTEGO BAY, St James:

About 346 students drawn from 11 inner city communities in Montego Bay were presented with back-to-school gift packages on Monday by the St James Peace Management Initiative (PMI).

The students who were enrolled at primary, all-age, junior high and high schools within the parish, each received a school bag with books and other school supplies for them to start the new academic year which begins on Monday.

The presentations formed part of the social interventions of the St James PMI. The students were selected from the communities in which the PMI is currently engaged. These include Lilliput, Paradise, Gutters, Granville, Hart Street, Glendevon, Rose Heights and Norwood.

- JIS

MANDEVILLE, Manchester:

The Hanbury Home for Children in Manchester has received an upgraded library with computers and other educational items from the Davis Projects for Peace, a United States-based foundation.

The updated $900,000 facility was made possible through a recommendation made by Jamaican-born academic at Howard University, Dr Grace Virtue. She encouraged two of her students to seek funding from the foundation to do a project at the home, as part of their studies.

Florence Maher, one of the two Howard students, said the educational software will reinforce the children's in-school learning and make working on a computer fun and friendly.

"To ensure the long-term sustainability of the project, we are bequeathing $90,000 (US$1,000), under the Rotary Club of Mandeville, to provide for improvements, repairs or other needs related to the computers. With this money, the lab can stay up and running for at least two years," she said at the handing over ceremony at the institution on Friday, August 28.

- JIS

KINGSTON:

The Reverend E. Don Taylor will be officially admitted on Sunday, September 6, as the 29th rector of the historic Kingston Parish Church during a service scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.

The Bishop of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, the Rev and Alfred C. Reid, will be the celebrant at the service which will be attended by a cross-section of clergy, lay members of the Church, representatives of the downtown civic and business community and members of the wider society. The sermon will be preached by the Bishop of New York, the Rev Mark Sisk. Lessons will be read by Lady Rheima Hall, who is an active member of the local Anglican community, and Miss Tara-Elizabeth Taylor, daughter of Bishop Taylor.

- Contributed

JN rewards students

Jarrett

ST ANDREW:

Thirty-six Jamaica National Scholars, secondary and tertiary students, will be formally presented with scholarships, bursaries and book grants by the Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS), at a reception to be held in the Half-Way Tree branch, at the JNBS headquarters, 2-4 Constant Spring Road, on Sunday, September 13, starting at 11 a.m.

"As a mutual Society, we welcome the opportunity to grant these scholarships and continue the process of building of social capital in our country," said General Manager Earl Jarrett, "because the education of our young people, particularly in these critical times, is vital to shaping the quality and performance of our future leaders".

Proper training to acquire technical skills and competences that are germane to the changing workplace will make a major difference between the success or failure of the growth of our country and will assist us to achieve one of the primary aims of our national Vision 2030 to "make Jamaica the place of choice to live, work and do business," said Jarrett.

- Contributed