MONTEGO BAY, St James – Michael Ellis, the principal of Cornwall College, says the recent distribution of care packages by the Lasco Chin Foundation to parents of students from schools across St James, could not have come at a better time.

Schools from around the parish, including high schools, were included in a national outreach that saw the Lasco Chin Foundation teaming up with the US-based Union of Jamaican Alumni Associations (UJAA) and the local-based Jamaican Alumni Association of high schools (JAAHS) distributing care packages to students who have been impacted by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Lasco Chin Foundation packages included food and personal care items, and according to Professor Rosalea Hamilton, CEO of the Lasco Chin Foundation, the initiative costs over $30 million.

Ellis, who also received packages from Cornwall College Old Boys’ (CCOB) chapters at the school last Thursday, told the Jamaica Observer West that, “speaking for all schools in St James, words cannot express how grateful and thankful we are, this collaboration with Lasco is unprecedented and is very timely.”

“All the schools have students whose parents would have lost their jobs as a result of COVID and clearly are not in a position to provide for their families, so any help that they can get is very timely and has to be appreciated,” he argued.

Hamilton described the initiative as “partnership in progress, effective partnership in response to this pandemic”.

“We thought it was important to forge the kinds of partnerships that can enable effective distribution of important items like food and also personal and household items that are needed at this time,” she pointed out.

“The relationship started with the UJAA and JAAHS, and we decided to just put a little MOU [memorandum of understanding] together, let’s try to encourage persons in the diaspora to provide support through the UJAA network and in collaboration with Carla [JAAHS president] and the JAAHS here in Jamaica, we teamed up to make sure the packages were delivered to the schools.”

While the effort, which started just under a month ago, and is expected to continue while there is still a need, Hamilton said the reach was extensive.

“We haven’t added up the alumni network yet as it just started about three weeks ago, but overall the collaborative effort has accumulated to more than 11,000 care packages that we have distributed across Jamaica and we are talking about approximately $30million,” she told the Observer West.

Carla Myrie, president of the JAAHS, was grateful that her association was able to participate in the initiative.

“We are happy to be partnering with the UJAA in New York and the Lasco Chin Foundation to encourage support of past students to assist with getting care packages for their schools, member institutions,” said Myrie.

And turning to the donation from the alumni chapters overseas, Ellis said, “any help that we can get or any association that can contribution to us, is always welcome…the old boys’ association overseas have come through with their commitments and the parents that have benefited are very grateful.”

Ajae Rhodes, a student who residents in the Rose Heights community of St James, expressed gratitude as he collected his package.

“My mother just got back to work and she has not been doing very well of late, so this what the CCOBA did, will help me because I am in need of the things necessary to get by in the pandemic,” he said.

Dr Richard Meggo, president of CCOBA, said his organisation “has as one of its objectives, the need to consider the interest and welfare of the school and it constituents thereof, and to look about the welfare of the most vulnerable among us, therefore this initiative seeks to mitigate the impact of this unprecedented pandemic.”

“This initiative in a large part is a collaborative effort between the local chapter and the Cornwall College population in the diaspora, and we have shared in the joys that the boys have given, and we want to share also in the challenges that they have, and we want to assist the families of particularly the most vulnerable and hard-hit among the student population,” he argued.

Meggo, who is also a former Parent Teachers Association vice-president, added that “the initiative also seeks to address the most vulnerable among us whether it be the administrative staff, auxiliary or academic staff, so it is a holistic approach looking at welfare of those in the college,” said Dr Meggo.

“Cornwall College has been good to us and this is just a small way of giving back to the institution which has blessed us with many good moments whether it is through academic or sporting accomplishments.”