Sandals Ocho Rios has launched another project aimed at assisting young Jamaicans living in the Pineapple community in St Ann.

The project, being implemented in two phases, provides, in the first phase, four young ladies from the community with a three-month training stint at the hotel to increase their skill levels and marketability.

The four are serving apprenticeships in the Guest Services, Bar, Housekeeping and Dining Room departments.

The second phase will see 14 more young ladies being part of a four-month cosmetology course run by Handz Down Beauty Salon and Training Institute.

The Handz Down team will spend two days each week, free of cost, in Ocho Rios to train the young women and at the end of the course seek to have them HEART-certified.

In addition, Sandals Ocho Rios has undertaken to raise funds to set up a full-fledged beauty salon in the Pineapple community and employ a number of graduates from the course.

Pineapple is one of St Ann’s more depressed communities with high unemployment.

“We are going to raise the standards and expectations in the community,” noted Sandals Ocho Rios’ public relations manager, Ian Spencer.

Former councillor, Colin Mills, who operates the Double VV Complex in the community, has also donated a shop rent-free for one year to be used as the salon.

General manager of Sandals Ocho Rios, Michael Darby, said that the programme was part of a number of new projects to be undertaken by the hotel this year to assist people living in St Ann.

“We have a duty to be good corporate citizens and play our part in moving the country forward,” Darby said.

Hotel manager, Clive Miller, called on other members of the local business sector to become partners with Sandals Ocho Rios in the Pineapple Skills Project. “The memory of the recent Flankers and Canterbury incidents are still fresh in our minds,” Miller said, in reference to the social disturbances in those St James communities last year. “We would not want this to happen in Ocho Rios. Come on board and join us.”

Kirkland Spencer, operator of Handz Down, said he was pleased to be a part of the project.

Soft Sheen has also pledged support and has donated products to be used in the salon.