WESTERN BUREAU – National Asset Recovery Services (NARS), a United States-based contact centre that began operations in Montego Bay over a year ago, is spending $2.4million to assist two Montego Bay institutions that were damaged during the passage of Hurricane Ivan last month.

They are the Albion Primary and Junior High School and the Granville Daycare Centre.

“The institutions… were badly affected by the hurricane, and after a careful assessment of the situation, we decided to help,” said NARS president, Christopher Buehrle.

He was speaking Wednesday, during the presentation of letters of commitment to the institutions’ representatives in the resort city.

The Category Four storm destroyed sections of the school’s roof as well as its Home and Family Management, and Industrial Arts classrooms. Several pieces of electrical equipment were also damaged. The institution, with its 1,500 students and 40 teachers, has since had to make adjustments.

“As a result of the hurricane, we have had to curtail some practical work. The library is now being used as a classroom and we have to curtail other activities so that classes can go on,” school principal Lenoval Morle told the Observer.

Those adjustments may soon become a thing of the past, with NARS’ intervention. According to Buehrle, NARS would replace the roof and provide the institution with a new refrigerator and sewing machine, which were lost during the hurricane.

At the same time, he said they would spend thousands of dollars to improve conditions at the almost two decades-old Granville Daycare Centre in St James.

“We are going to deliver new cribs, mattresses, children’s chairs and other materials to improve the overall conditions,” he noted. Already they have provided the facility with an assortment of books and toys. The centre’s management has, in the interim, had to spend large sums of money for the removal of fallen trees and other debris from the premises.

Meanwhile, David Owenby – NARS’ vice-president for international relations – said they had been providing assistance to their Montego Bay-based employees who suffered loss during the hurricane.

“We looked at our employees who have been impacted, and various members of the staff were identified and selected to receive aid with building material to repair, or rebuild their homes or items destroyed,” he said.

He added that some employees had been provided with payroll advances and groceries, even as they have been given the opportunity to work extra hours.

NARS, which has its headquarters inside St Louis in Missouri, has been in existence since 1993. In June of last year it extended its operations to Jamaica, offering services in debt collection, telemarketing and help desk assistance.