KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Olivia Grange, has announced that Telethon Jamaica has so far raised $60 million to purchase personal protective equipment for frontline workers.

The minister made the announcement as she accepted a cheque for $2 million from the Restaurants of Jamaica Group (operators of KFC and Pizza Hut in Jamaica) today, May 22 at her ministry’s office in New Kingston.

“We are now up to 60 million dollars in collection and pledges.  We have collected most of what has been pledged and today, KFC has delivered their cheque to us,” Grange said.

The brand manager for Restaurants of Jamaica, Andrei Roper said: “It was necessary for us to step up and make a contribution like this to show how much we value the contribution being made by those persons who are putting themselves at risk for all of us on a day-to-day basis.”

Minister Grange said she was heartened by the support that Telethon Jamaica continues to receive. 

“I am really happy to see how corporate Jamaica and the Jamaica Diaspora have contributed tremendously to this effort,” Grange said as she highlighted the generosity of the National Association of Jamaican and Supportive Organisations in the United States which originally pledged US$10,000 but wired US$11,000 into the account.

The minister said the effort has also benefitted from sizeable contributions by the Bob Marley Foundation, Jamaica Cooperative Credit Union League, Ziggy Marley, Rohan Marley, Alacran, Keith Duncan, the St Thomas Renaissance Foundation, Joe Bogdanovich, Usain Bolt, Blackpoint Electronics, DAN Industries and Robert Livingston.

She added that the process of transferring the money collected to the National Health Fund, which is the government agency procuring PPEs for frontline workers, has started.