WROC gets new rooms and equipment

THE Equal Rights and Justice (ERJ) project, with support from the European Union (EU), has commissioned newly refurbished rooms at the Women’s Resource and Outreach Centre (WROC)’s Beechwood Avenue head offices. These are a ‘Peace Room’ that will facilitate confidential counselling for families affected by domestic violence and other issues; an activity room, facilitating community members (from children to seniors) to be safely occupied in a range of pursuits, and a storage area.

Also provided are a desktop computer, an electronic keyboard, and a new big screen television. Additionally, the kitchen has also been refurbished. The ERJ/EU contributed some $600,000 to the completion of the project.

At a handover function for the project at WROC at the beginning of the month, Nikeisha Sewell Lewis, executive director at WROC, said the project “will go a far way to help us to enable persons to safely access resources, service and support and thus to minimise the likelihood of recurring issues and help lead to positive change in the community over the long term.”

The handover took the form of a ‘speaking circle’ incorporating Ambassador Malgorzata Wasilewska, head of the European Union delegation to Jamaica, Dr Shinique Walters, project lead for the ERJ, and several of the women who have long been associated with WROC over the years.

Established in 1983, WROC was founded by the Committee of Women for Progress, the body which was in the forefront of the struggle for paid maternity leave which was won in 1979.