ST JAMES, Jamaica-More than 50 children from the inner-city community of Rose Heights and neighbouring areas were back enjoying summer camp activities physically following a two-year disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The one-week camp, which was held at the Rose Heights Infant School, was sponsored by the Jamaica Public Service Foundation in collaboration with the Farm Heights Community Development Committee (CDC).

During the recent closing ceremony for the camp, president for the Farm Heights Community Development Committee (CDC), Alicia Archer argued that the return of the camp was good for the children especially because of the displacement that had been caused by the pandemic.

“We found that the children were eager to socialise and so it was important to incorporate activities that would see them expressing themselves but most importantly just to get them together again because of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic would have displaced them somewhat and so it was good to have them out,” she explained.

She further explained that the camp allowed for the students to learn about a variety of things, including Jamaica’s culture.

“The volunteers at the camp would have tried to create various activities that would see them coming out and being a part of it, learning along the way, there were activities geared towards learning about our culture,” said Archer.

“This is what the camp is about, the camp is really about engagement, ensuring that the students know that those in the community love them and care about them.”

She expressed gratitude for the support from the JPS Foundation in helping to bring back the camp to the children in the community.

“It was the JPS Foundation who would have allowed us to have the camp on a yearly basis and we are grateful for the partnership, we’re grateful for the support from the Jamaica Public Service Foundation,” she stressed.

Programmes Officer for the JPS Foundation Allaine Harvey, in his remarks said they were happy with its return, noting however, that the camp had been held virtually over the past two years.

“We feel very good to know that we have been able to reengage the youth this year but also that we were able to keep them engaged during the COVID period because over the COVID period we still had the camp and we did a virtual summer camp for the COVID period,” he explained.

“It is something that is in keeping with our mandate and our mandate is to support youth development, education and overall national development.”

The foundation, in addition to assisting with the camp, also gifted the children with back-to-school support in the form of bags and other educational items.