BOMBAY, the rural Manchester district named after the old Indian city (now called Mumbai), is definitely off the beaten track, some might say off the map. But these days, Bombay is getting attention, thanks to a local boy who made good.

Lord Bill Morris, one of the world’s most powerful black men and one of the most influential men in Britain, is determined not to forget his roots dug deep in the sleepy farming district 13 miles northeast of Mandeville, the Manchester capital.

As a director of the British Cricket Board, he is attending the ICC Cricket World Cup, but he took time out to touch base with the place of his humble birth.

When in 2002 British Airways donated a sum of 10,000 pounds towards the construction of a sorely needed health centre in Bombay, it was as a result of the initiative of one of Bombay’s own.

It was a vastly different Bombay from the one at the time Bill was born 59 years ago. For one, the population had shot up, necessitating a health clinic to handle illnesses that didn’t have to be referred to the hospital in the capital.

Then too, hardly anyone could imagine that little Bill would have grown up to become Lord Bill Morris, chancellor to Jamaica’s University of Technology and to the University of Staffordshire, England.

Bill Morris, who was last year appointed to the House of Lords in England, has been actively involved in the development of his hometown and the health centre is only one example of his noble contributions to the district and to Jamaica on a whole.

Last Friday, he was back in the district for what might seem a small gesture, but to Bombay a significant one – the presentation of a brand new General Electric open range stove to the health care facility, that he was instrumental in getting the Appliance Traders Limited (ATL)/Sandals group of companies to donate.

He said he felt it was necessary to give something back to the community from whence he came and which had made him into the person he was today.

“When I came here in November last year, they told me they didn’t have a stove and so I pledged personally to fund the stove because I think it’s important that the centre be looked after as a community resource,” he told the Observer after the brief handing over ceremony.

However, Lord Morris noted that when he mentioned his intentions to someone at ATL, the company decided to take on the project as part of its social responsibility.

“We felt it was more than a worthy cause,” Sandals Group director for corporate communications, Rachel McLarty, said, noting the efforts of Lord Morris in the construction of the health centre.

The gift has made the task of sterilising medical equipment much easier for the health professionals in the district who, for the past two years, either had to travel three miles to the Bellefield Health Centre or six miles to the Percy Junor Hospital in Spalding on the border of Manchester and Clarendon to get the job done.

Twenty-seven-year health care veteran and midwife in charge of the centre, Joyce Anderson-Morgan, told the Observer that they were pleased to have received the equipment.

“Because of the fact that we don’t have a steriliser here, we used to have to boil [the equipment] – because we had a two-burner stove, but the filament burn out – or we used to take things down to Bellefield or to Percy Junor to sterilise.

“However, with the stove now we can boil things for dressings, like the forceps and so on and if anybody feels sick we can boil a cup of tea for them,” the obviously pleased midwife said.

Lord Morris migrated to the United Kingdom at the age of 16 and worked his way up the ranks of Britain’s largest trade union – the Transport and General Workers’ Union (TGWU) – to be elected the first black general secretary in 1991 and re-elected in 1995.

Although he has retired from the TGWU, Lord Morris continues to work in public service and in addition to serving as head of two universities, he currently serves as non-executive director for the Bank of England, member of the Panel of Mergers and Takeovers and, of course, a director of the Cricket Board for England.

His contribution to public service both in Jamaica and in the UK have not escaped the attention of either government, and in 2002, he received the Order of Jamaica for his work in international trade unionism and one year later he, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

“Both appointments (to the order of knighthood and to the House of Lords)…do inspire me to act as a role model for Caribbean people to look up to, particularly our young people who I hope will be able to say ‘if that man from a rural community could do it, so can I’,” Lord Morris said, humility resounding in his voice.

The distinguished public servant, who travels to the island at least twice each year, also gives to the Bombay All-Age school in the district.

“We give when we can to the school. At the moment they have no means of recording important events so I have pledged to give them a camera,” he said.

Approximately 4,000 persons from Bombay and surrounding communities, including Allison, Cumberland, Virginia, Belle-Air and Cheapside, benefit from the health centre, which, despite the new stove, still lacks a few pieces of furniture and equipment. “We would love if we had a steriliser,” Anderson-Morgan told the Observer. “(We also need) tables, filing cabinets, chairs and a stepping stool to get onto the beds.”

The main services offered at the clinic are family planning guidance, ante-natal care and child health as well as home visits for pregnant mothers, the indigent, bed-ridden and shut-in.

According to the registered mid-wife, the majority of persons in the community – two fifths of whom are children, another two-fifths who fall into the maternal category and the rest of whom are elderly – utilise the services provided.

She added that the introduction of the state-run Programme for Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH), which allows more persons to access health care despite their low levels of income, had caused the number of people using the facility to increase.