Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is becoming a prominent phenomenon in the call centre industry in Jamaica and Unique Vacations Ltd is one call centre in which the founders and staff deem themselves corporate citizens with responsibility for social development and change.

On September 16, Unique Vacations in collaboration with their sports and social club, celebrated their three-year-old ‘Adopt a Child’ initiative, with their back-to-school treat at the Catherine Hall Primary School. The initiative has now been extended to four students, including the first beneficiary, honour roll student, Tavaughn Brown.

Tavaughn, along with Khajwayne Grant, Tasheena Cunningham and Kewana Peterkin, was gifted with bags packed with school supplies for the new school term. In addition, the company has also committed itself to assisting where possible should any future needs arise among the chosen students.

The treat was geared towards assisting these students who prove themselves to be academically excellent but lacking certain resources that could impact the maintenance of such excellence. General Manager Leezo Wallace is moved by the initiative. “Events of this nature are very sentimental to me and I cannot help being nostalgic because I come from very humble beginnings and as a result I take the utmost pride in helping to enhance the academics of these brilliant students.”

He further expressed how proud he was of the fact that three additional students were adopted under the initiative. “Business is steadily growing and the call center industry on a whole is thriving and so the onus is on us to positively impact the community around us in whatever way we possibly can. I take personal pride in this and I cannot wait to see what the future holds for these kids.”

Young Tavaughn Brown, who maintains a 90+ average, expressed his gratitude for the gesture: “I am really happy about it and it motivates me to do my best so they can continue to assist until I am ready to go to high school.”

Unique Vacations Limited is an affiliate of Unique Travel Corp, the worldwide representative of Sandals Resorts, ,whose philanthropic arm is the Sandals Foundation. It is therefore no surprise that the 15-year-old company would want to uphold the standard of social responsibility. Evidence of this consistent social outreach by the parent company can be seen on the Sandals Resorts’ deputy chairman’s social media pages; the latest being the huge donation drive hosted by the foundation to assist those who were recently affected by Hurricane Dorian in The Bahamas.

In a recent article published in the Jamaica Observer, Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett emphasised to stakeholders in the sector how important it is to focus on CSR. “We cannot measure tourism success solely by profits and record visitor arrivals. The sector’s true success lies in a broad-based initiative that drives economic growth and social well-being that benefit the Jamaican people. These programmes are essential to sustainable, long-term development in the sector,” Bartlett said.