THE St Andrew Parish Committee of the governor general’s I Believe Initiative (IBI) launched its hand hygiene project recently, under the theme ‘Save Lives-Clean your Hands’, that will cover 10 parishes in the hope of limiting the transmission of the novel coronavirus.

Some eight schools have already received automated sanitiser dispensers, the main thrust of the project which was launched at the Meadowbrook High School located in St Andrew, where the custos rotulorum of the parish, Dr Patricia Dunwell, gave her official endorsement of these sanitisation projects.

Dr Dunwell emphasised the importance of good hand hygiene, especially “in light of the unprecedented times that we’re in due to COVID-19”, and she welcomed the idea that schoolchildren would benefit significantly from the donation of these dispensers when they returned to school in 2021.

The former national coordinator of the Governor-General’s Programme for Excellence (GGPE) , Sonja Simms, also lauded the efforts of the IBI ambassadors in the parish of St Andrew for being resilient in this time of COVID-19, by still finding a way to positively impact the Jamaican society and for “using their God-given potential to give service upholding the principles of the IBI mantra — ‘Using what is right with Jamaica, to fix what is wrong with Jamaica’.”

The schools which have received sanitisers and display signs so far are: Meadowbrook High School, The Queen’s School, St Barnabas Early Childhood Development Centre, The Wortley Home for Girls, Mt Fletcher Primary School located in Mavis Bank, The Salvation Army School for the Blind & Visually Impaired, Providence Primary School, and the First Baptist Church. These donations will impact over 5,000 individuals which will equate to over 10,000 clean hands.

Dr Romario Simpson, who serves as the parish lead for the IBI’s St Andrew Parish Committee, expressed much pleasure with the pace that these projects are being executed, saying he was thankful to the many co-sponsors/partners, including the Rotary Club and the Optimist Club of Manor Park. “My goal is to cover at least 10 institutions across the parish by December 2020, with special focus on educational institutions, as I believe that schools should be equipped with the necessary tools to open as safely and effectively as possible, so that learning can continue in a cohesive and equitable way.”

The I Believe Initiative is the voluntary arm of the Governor-General’s Programme for Excellence that was launched in 2011. It operates on three main pillars: youth, education and family. Through this social voluntary arm of the GGPE, IBI ambassadors are encouraged to propose and execute projects, as well as develop partnerships that are geared towards restoring hope and addressing the many social ills that plague Jamaica.

“The first case of the novel coronavirus was confirmed in Jamaica on March 10, 2020 and life ever since has been filled with much uncertainty, increased hardship and much grief. The novel coronavirus pandemic has affected our way of life in terms of how we socialise and conduct our daily activities. This is even truer for our vulnerable citizens and the student population whose education has been drastically affected as highlighted in reports from the Ministry of Education, Youth & Information,” Dr Simpson said.

“As a result, the Government of Jamaica (GOJ) recently started a pilot programme for the resumption of face-to-face academic sessions following a nine-month hiatus. This has proven to be an interesting time with its unique challenges for parents, teachers and students who now have to adjust to new protocols geared towards combating this pandemic, with practices such as regular temperature checks at the school entrances, the wearing of face masks and the practising of frequent hand hygiene.”

“Hand hygiene is recognised by public health officials worldwide as a powerful public health tool that is useful to combat many diseases such as influenza [common flu], conjunctivitis [pink eye] and even the deadly coronavirus,” Simpson added.