CORPORAL Andrew Williams, who has been doing a tablet drive for grade five students across Jamaica through his non-profit organisation Positive Initiative, is pleading with Jamaicans to get on board for the sake of the children.

Williams, who is stationed at the headquarters of the Community Safety and Security Branch on Oxford Road in St Andrew, started Positive Initiative in 2012. Up until 2019 he could be seen in shops or supermarkets paying for strangers’ groceries out of his pocket, a part of what he dubbed a kindness tour.

Williams told the Jamaica Observer that today, he is responding to the unfortunate learning loss abyss into which students have been plunged.

“The aim is to eliminate that obstacle of not being prepared, because of a lack of resources, to becoming that better version of themselves. So, we are giving persons an entire year and we check up on them from time to time, just to get the material in and better prepare them for life. So far, we’ve been able to do a tablet for Portland, St Elizabeth, St Ann and Kingston and St Andrew. I am hoping that somebody would either come on board or will do the other parishes,” he said.

“As a part of the tablet drive as well, I had small trinkets on my status selling — just for persons to get them so we could spin the profit to purchase these tablets. A lot of work went into it. We want all hands on deck. Whatever platform the Lord has provided you with, we are trying to get that platform to be used positively to influence the lives of our kids.”

Williams said the goal of the project is to assist as best as possible, and to make the education experience a little bit easier for the children, “our future leaders”.

“That is the reason we gave them to students in the fifth grade, which gives them and entire year to prepare for PEP [Primary Exit Profile]. We will affect the lives of these youngsters negatively or positively through our actions, whether we like it or not. So, Positive Initiative is choosing positivity as our choice of influence,” he related to the Sunday Observer.

The plan, Williams added, is to donate a tablet to one student across all 14 parishes.

“We have only been able to get five so far, which [were] acquired through donation[s] from Noel Grierson and Sharnette Dehaney, and proceeds from selling small trinkets to aid in purchasing the tablets. I know, however, that getting to the other parishes will take further assistance to achieve this goal,” he said.

“The persons who received the tablets were chosen through teachers, guidance counsellors, police youth club leaders and, in one case, an admin officer at a youth information centre. The feedback from both the persons selected and the persons selected was amazing. The gratitude from the persons who benefited and the encouragement from the persons who helped to select them make the sacrifice worth it,” he said, noting that the focus is on students who are really in need.

Further, Positive Initiative was recently registered as a non-profit organisation and is currently on the verge of being given charitable status.

“We are doing the documentation for that aspect of it. We just want persons to know that kindness is simply a state of mind and if we are going to get Jamaica to the place that we want it to be, we have to invest and be deliberate in our kindness, deliberate in our actions as to what we’re investing in.

“In order to have the organisation registered it was important that more persons come on board and therefore, some the persons who [were] assisted [were] brought on board officially. These persons are Terry-Ann Harris, Melissa Brown and Nordia Campbell.

“When we started, the main focus was on children. Since 2012 we have seen the scope widen to adults and senior citizens as well as several citizens with disabilities. We have found that there are so many persons who value kindness and really want to see our island blossom. More persons have come on board and pledged their support. It is simply an awesome feeling to see so many persons value kindness,” Williams added.