Diaspora group seeks smoother donations to schools

The Barbados Association of Southern California is seeking smoother ways for American companies and organisations to donate directly to schools, complaining of logistical challenges preventing the association from providing supplies.

President Gregory Chase made the appeal on Wednesday during a prize-giving ceremony at St Philip Primary School in Church Village, where past student Selwyn Holder rewarded students and teachers following the school’s outstanding performance in the Barbados Secondary Schools’ Entrance Examination.

Chase said: “The Barbados association [of Southern California] has supported St Philip Primary School for several years. First, we tried providing supplies, and the logistics became prohibitive.”
He explained that the association eventually changed its approach: “Then we decided that we would better serve the school by providing assistance with… the Great Start breakfast programme. And that has worked out with the help of the Lions Club.”

The breakfast initiative has become particularly important to members of the association, Chase said.

“Of all the things that we do in the Barbados Association of Southern California, it is this programme that gets our membership most animated, and I thank them for their support.”
The organisation focuses its humanitarian and educational assistance on “persons with special needs and youth with special dreams, those who are headed in the right direction and those who are taking steps to improve their community”, Chase said.

The association was also willing to assist people and organisations working to create positive change, he added.

“I want to tell you, you have friends in America. You have friends in Washington, DC. You have friends in Southern California.

And I hope that you make use of those friendships,” Chase told the students.

“And I am glad to see, Mrs Bhamjee and Mrs Daniel, that that support appears to be paying off in the results that you’ve cited earlier in your presentation. So it is great to see,” he added as he encouraged the students to remain focused on their goals despite challenges.

He also singled out Holder, a St Philip Primary alumnus, as a “son of this soil and a product of this school, and he has not held back from his success as a businessman”.
“I urge you to embrace his charity work, and to take him seriously and to honour his contribution, because really and truly, he is a rock star.” (LE)