KINGSTON, Jamaica — The National Education Trust (NET) is urging donors and partners to channel recovery assistance through the agency, as it spearheads relief efforts for schools impacted by Category Five Hurricane Melissa in October.

Executive Director, Latoya Harris-Ghartey, emphasised that coordinated support is vital to ensuring aid reaches the institutions most in need and aligns with national recovery priorities.

She told JIS News that NET’s placement within the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information enables the agency to provide donors with guidance that is informed by real-time data and aligned with national policy direction.

Harris-Ghartey further highlighted that NET’s registered charity status provides financial benefits for donors.

“You benefit from waivers… from tax relief. We are also coordinating to have support with ODPEM (Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management) to ensure that you get the most bang for your buck in terms of relief and ensuring that we partner with brokers that will reduce their costs,” she explained.

The executive director emphasised that one of the key strengths of central coordination is its ability to ensure accuracy and efficiency in the deployment of relief.

“We have a database with the schools that have been impacted, and they have fed information through our survey to say what their exact needs are now. We are also able to cross-check and map in to see where a donor has indicated that it’s doing X, Y, and Z, and we can say to you – ‘alright, well, somebody’s already there operating, would you consider somebody else?’ So, you don’t have duplication of efforts in the system,” she stated.

Harris-Ghartey acknowledged that while some partnerships bypass NET and provide direct support to schools, the agency is actively working to monitor and track all ongoing activities.

“If we’re able to log all of these activities, we will know what’s happening at our institutions. We can say to you: ‘alright, well somebody is going there, somebody is assigned to go there already’, and pointing somewhere else that is still in need. I think that sort of strategic approach is needed for us to recover faster,” she reasoned.

Meanwhile, the executive director noted that donors also have the option of designating their contributions to specific institutions.

She advised that NET upholds strict accountability procedures, ensuring transparency, whether donations in cash or kind are provided generally or directed to a preferred institution.

“We have a reporting obligation to donors. So, usually, we provide donors with an update on where their funding items went. We are audited annually and all our activities are reported on in our annual report,” Harris-Ghartey said.

–       JIS