Guardian Life Limited has donated $700,000 towards a Lions Club of Mona project to construct and equip a modern resource centre for physically challenged students on the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies.

The $31 million centre, conceived seven years ago by the club which meets on the campus grounds, is to be used by blind and other vision-impaired students, as well as those with hearing and physical impairments.

The ground floor of the two-storey, 438-square metre centre, to be located along the Ring Road in close proximity to residential Taylor Hall and the Main Library, will be specially fitted with meeting and class rooms; library facilities for research, and sound proof examination and recording booths.

There will also be computer facilities for Braille translations and other general purposes.

Dr Keith Peart, chairman of the Resource Centre Committee says the upper floor, which will be accessible by elevator, “will be designed as a counseling centre for assessing and diagnosing students who may be suffering from a learning disability or might not be coping within the regular classroom setting of the University.”

A formal proposal for the resource centre was submitted to UWI in 2002 with approval given in October of the same year. Said Guardian Life president Ear Moore: “We believe this project is one of the ways in which we can provide an opportunity for persons with the ability to make a meaningful contribution to our nation but otherwise would be marginalised because of a lack of suitable and adequate resources to hone their innate skills, abilities and talents.”