MANDEVILLE, Manchester – At the Woodlawn School of Special Education for the mentally challenged in Mandeville, the waiting list grew so long that the school’s administration stopped taking names.

Hence the delight of principal, Yvonne Snowball, at the gift of two additional classrooms and two bathrooms by the Rotary Club of Mandeville and its several sponsorship partners.

“I can’t even begin to tell you how much we appreciate this gift,” Snowball told the Sunday Observer during a visit to the school.

“We still won’t be able to take all the children who need places, because we have a waiting list of about 50, but at least parents will be smiling come September, because at least we will be able to take more than we have before.”

Winston Lawson, now in the final weeks of his presidency of the Mandecille club, said completion of the Woodlawn project is an achievement “close to the heart.”

“We saw the need and sought to help and we hope that our little bit will do something to help,” said Lawson of the Woodlawn project.

Crucially, the service club, which is the third oldest rotary organisation in Jamaica dating back to 1964, used its networking capacity to draw partners to the project.

“We have had a plethora of sponsors, with a lot of persons and companies coming aboard, including NCB which gave us $250,000, JMMB came on board with $190,000, Brumalia Hardware delivered all the paint and Island Hardware gave us cement.,” said Lawson.

Similar approaches have led to a boosting of the computer and information technology capacity of the Bishop Gibson High School in Mandeville and the delivery last year of $6.2 million worth of critical care equipment including ventilators, incubators and vital signs monitors to the Mandeville Regional Hospital.

That hospital gift was facilitated by partnerships with rotary clubs abroad as well as Rotary International and local corporate citizens, including Jamaica Money Market Brokers and the bauxite/alumina producers, Alpart.

With the help of Mayberry Investments, which Lawson says “provided 100 per cent sponsorship”, the Rotarians were able to hand over 20 computers to Bishop Gibson High.

Annette Piper, principal of Bishop Gibson, says the assistance, plus other gifts of computers from past students and the PTA now means that “all our students are exposed to IT, every child in this school now has IT on their timetable.”

Soon, she says, the school will be at the “cutting edge of technology” using computers as a fully integrated “teaching tool”.

And while they have had considerable success at forging partnerships with others, the Rotarians are proud of their own “pooling together” in projects that they believe have made a difference – like Amanda Williams’ New Hope Children’s Home at Brompton Heights.

Perched high up on a hill overlooking Mandeville, the house owned by Williams – an American who has made Jamaica her home and the care of abandoned babies her mission – could have lost its status as a refuge for children because of the low wall around a dizzyingly high balcony, turned kiddies play area.

“As you can see we are very high up and they (Children’s Services) said the barrier was too low. We had to make it higher for it to be safe. It was a chunk of money we just didn’t have,” said Williams.

The Rotarians stepped in and according to Lawson “we pooled amongst ourselves and got the cement and blocks and did our little thing.”

It’s the sort of “little thing” that has, for example, allowed a number of basic schools to get water tanks and other basic amenities that have made a difference.

“Water is a real problem in Mandeville,” says Lawson. “It brings tears to the eyes sometimes to see what children have to go through.”

Local Rotarians will continue to do what we can to help at the community level, he said, referring to an entreaty made by prime minister Portia Simpson Miller.

“The PM has said it,” said Lawson. “She wants to build the country back up, community by community, and we have to also recognise our purpose in building our community and holding things together as much as we can.”

editorial@jamaicaobserver.com