MORE than 250 National Commercial Bank (NCB) volunteers undertook renovations at St Jude’s Primary in Kingston and Breadnut Hill Primary in Ocho Rios on Monday — all in an effort to safeguard literacy outcomes at the two institutions.

Work was done on several classrooms and at the schools’ libraries. The schools’ environs were also cleaned.

“This initiative was aligned with the NCB Foundation’s ‘Love for Reading Programme’, which forms a part of the foundation’s mandate of improving literacy on a national level while igniting a passion for reading among our nation’s children,” the bank said in a press release to Career & Education.

According to Belinda Williams, NCB’s group corporate communications Manager, Labour Day was yet another opportunity for the bank to “demonstrate our mantra of building a better Jamaica through our spirit of volunteerism as well as to intervene on a national level by enabling our nation’s children to become avid readers”.

“This Labour Day project has a specific focus that not only delivers on our ‘Love for Reading’ programme, which was initiated to improve literacy at the primary school level, but also advances the national Labour Day focus — ‘It takes a village to raise a child’,” she said in the release.

“NCB’s contribution consists of upgrading libraries, donating books as well as computers to schools identified as critical by the Ministry of Education. In addition, our employees will continue to volunteer their time by having one-on-one 45-minute reading sessions and interactions at schools within the communities in which we operate and form a part,” Williams said further.