Santa Cruz, St Elizabeth – All year long Joycelyn Bryan, Matron of the St Elizabeth Infirmary, has been pondering how to acquire a much-needed weed cutter.

Now she not only has the money to buy the garden manicuring tool, she will have a “useful amount” left over.

A delighted Bryan recently collected a cheque worth $US1000 from the New York-based charity Social Agenda for Education (SAFE) which is mainly funded by Jamaicans and West Indians in New York.

“This is very well appreciated,” she told Marlyn Bruce, executive member of SAFE who handed over the cheque. “Gifts like these go a far way in offsetting the urgent needs of institutions such as this one,” the matron added.

While the infirmary which is currently home to 66 elderly and infirm residents (35 men and 31 women) is state-funded and operated, Bryan pointed out that “Government is unable to give us all that we need”.

It was important, she said, that others followed the example of organizations such as SAFE in helping “in any way you can”.

Bryan identified a security fencing around the infirmary – which is ablout half-finished – as the insititution’s “most pressing need” at this time. “We need all the help we can get to complete the fencing for the security of our residents and staff,” she said.

Bruce who is married to the president of SAFE, Elton Bruce, said her organization was founded 16 years ago on the basis of an understanding that “we all need to help each other”.

The gift to the St Elizabeth Infirmary “was a small start” to what she expected to be a long and meaningful relationship, she said.

A non-profit organization which raises much of its funds from a year-end dance in New York, SAFE is mainly dedicated to assisting schools and school children in St Elizabeth and the wider Jamaica. In September SAFE provided financial assistance to a number of new high school entrants in the Malvern area of St Elizabeth.