THE United Way of Jamaica recently put up $1.3 million to ensure the continuity of the bee-keeping project run by the Spring Village Development Foundation.

According to United Way, the funding is in keeping with its commitment to youth and community development, noting that the project has proven to be very successful in that it engaged some 30 a- risk persons in apicultural best practices.

“The investment was well made as 23 young entrepreneurs from the community have been given the opportunity to better their lives through the bee-keeping project managed by the Spring Village Development Foundation. United Way is pleased to have provided them with the funding to expand their productive capacity and to positively impact their community, “said Noel daCosta, chairman of United Way.

Randy Finnikin, executive director of Spring Village Foundation, was thankful for the donation. “Thanks to United Way of Jamaica for their sensitivity to the needs of grassroots organisations, their willingness to support ventures of this nature is unequalled and they are deserving of the highest award.”

He said that the Spring Village Development Foundation was established with the mandate to empower residents of the community to achieve self-reliance in order to improve their educational, spiritual, social, economic and environmental well-being. This came against the background of a high rate of unemployment, high dropout rate from school, the worrying number of unplanned pregnancies, drug abuse, and child neglect among other socio- economic conditions prevailing at the time.

United Way’s chairman of project evaluation, Carlton Stephen, was pleased to endorse the project stating that it was executed in accordance with United Way’s requirements. “This partnership will certainly have lasting impact on the community,” he said.