by Randy Bennett
If everything goes according to plan, schools across the island will receive school supplies on an annual basis courtesy of the Red Foundation.
Member of Parliament for Christ Church South Ralph Thorne and founder of Red Foundation Stedson RPB Wiltshire made the announcement yesterday at a presentation at Amigos restaurant, where seven primary schools were presented with donations of school supplies.
Those schools were Vauxhall, St Christopher, Christ Church Girls, Milton Lynch, Gordon Walters, Arthur Smith and St Bartholomew’s.
Thorne, a Queen’s Counsel, said the proceeds used to buy the supplies were raised via a charity cricket match held on September 27 in collaboration with the Red Foundation.
He said while the objective was to donate school supplies to the children in Christ Church, they were looking at expanding it to schools throughout the island.
“I’m wondering if we should not be ambitious enough to extend this across the country because problems do not know parish borders, nor do they know constituency borders,” Thorne acknowledged.
Wiltshire, a Cultural Ambassador, said his Foundation jumped at the opportunity to lend their support when asked. He said the COVID-19 pandemic had negatively affected children and families, and they needed assistance now more than ever.
“COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on people all over the world. We are a resilient people and we continue to do everything in our power to help keep each other afloat, so this was easy for me to get involved in.
“I would be happy to see this being an annual event. I think it is important that we continue to do things like this. We just can’t have a one off like this and just leave it. I think the view of making it a national thing can work,” Wiltshire said.
Chairman of the Red Foundation Alvin Jemmott told Barbados TODAY that several schools had already benefited from the Foundation’s work. He revealed that 350 tablets had already been donated
to schools in Barbados.
“In the last couple of months, we have seen the devastation of COVID-19 on our communities, our learning institutions, our children, and we joined forces with some other organizations to come to the rescue to help.
“One of the organizations that we teamed up with is the Coalition for the Barbados Association of Central Florida, and they are actually responsible for helping us to donate in excess of 250 tablets to primary schools in every parish in Barbados. We wanted to make sure we touched every corner of the island so we gave five tablets to 22 different schools,” Jemmott disclosed.
Jemmott said his nephew, a past student of Ellerslie who resides in the US, also donated 100 tablets to his alma mater.
(randybennett@barbadostoday.bb)
