NINETEEN students from two deep-rural communities in north-east Manchester recently benefited from almost $500,000 in scholarships.

The Chudleigh Path branch of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS), Devon Missionary Church and the Wilfred ”Jacksie” Reid Scholarship Fund (WJRSF) partnered in granting the students from the basic, primary and high school levels assistance with tablets and workbooks.

Chairman of WJRSF Franklin Reid explained the purpose of the grants.

“There were five applicants this year and one applicant would basically get the scholarship for a special amount for three years. Nonetheless, all of them received the COVID-19 tablet grant of $25,000,” he said.

He explained that the WJRSF was established in 2012 “to honour the life and work of community stalwart, Wilfred ‘Jacksie’ Reid, by providing scholarships to less fortunate, strong performing children from the church and the communities of Chudleigh Path and Devon, who require monetary support for the cost of their education”.

Seven students were beneficiaries of funds through the JAS branch.

“The impact it has is that there are three sets of offerings that we make; the JAS branch gets scholarships for their [Chudleigh] Path members — their children and grandchildren are eligible — and for the past ten years we have been giving support to that,” said Reid.

Students at the Chudleigh Path Early Childhood Institute (CPECI) also benefited.

“There is a basic school that we offer books to. This year we are giving a complete set of workbooks to all the students, so the impact is significant, because each of those sets of workbooks cost about $11,000,” said Reid.

“All the children in the class that would be qualifying to go to primary school, they receive these sets of workbooks, because we want all of them to be in a position where whether at direct learning or God bless what can happen online for [those] little children, at least they would have the workbook [to use],” he added.

The ECI also received a laptop to assist with online learning.

Reid also said Devon Missionary Church for the past ten years has been assisting at least two students annually with grants.