The construction of a vegetable garden and the cleaning of the exterior of the buildings at the Garland Hall Memorial Children’s Home in Anchovy, St James, were among a raft of activities recently undertaken at the institution by GoInspired Jamaica Foundation, under its Service, Empowerment, Environment and Culture (SEEC) programme.

Almost 50 volunteers participated in the project, 45 of whom were from the Canada-based energy consulting firm, DNE Resources.

Activities undertaken on August 23 included outfitting a chicken coop with chicks and setting up a brooding area; cleaning the exterior of the buildings; constructing vegetable beds and sowing vegetable seeds in trays. Funding was provided to the tune of US$1,330.

Empowerment sessions with the wards of the state at the home were also held, as well as the distribution of back-to-school supplies.

Racquel Reece, a co-founder and director at GoInspired Jamaica, told the Jamaica Observer West that her organisation decided to undertake the project after a “needs assessment was done”.

“What we do is that we identify the needs of various organisations, but we also seek to work with organisations that support children because our objective is to inspire Jamaica and to help Jamaicans to inspire other people because in our view children are the future, and so we tend to work with organisations that support that cause,” Reece explained, stressing that “Garland Hall fell within our remit.”

She added that the volunteers from Canada were vacationing in the Montego Bay area and wanted to spend a day doing community work, “so Garland Hall was the place that we saw that fit the need of what we wanted to do”.

According to the foundation, the Garland Hall Memorial project was the second of its kind to be undertaken by the one-year-old non-governmental organisation, during last month.

The other was a project at the Mount Olivet Boys’ Home in Walderston, Manchester. Both projects were executed at a cost of US$9,400.

Sydia Smith, the director at the Garland Hall Memorial Children’s Home, expressed delight at the work undertaken by the volunteers.

“I am very grateful for them. It is a big help,” she told the Observer West.

She was especially pleased with the vegetable beds and the seeds that were planted in trays as well as the baby chicks received.

“Pretty soon we will have vegetables and chickens which we will use at the home,” added an elated Smith.

The Garland Hall Memorial Children’s Home, formerly known as Pansy Garden, was completed in 1957.

The home, which is run by the Jamaica Baptist Union and sponsored by the Jamaica Baptist Women’s Federation, accommodates up to 35 children, most of whom are wards of the state, sent to the institution by the Child Development Agency.

Twenty-one wards of the state are currently housed at the home.