When students at Bridgeport Primary School in St Catherine return to face-to-face classes, they will be entering a safer environment thanks to an initiative implemented by JN Foundation in collaboration with United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and ABERTIS Foundation.

Under the initiative labelled 'X-Marks the Spot', the school has received infrastructure upgrades, including sidewalks, road signs, and a newly painted crosswalk, all of which will make commuting to school much easier.

“We are extremely pleased and we are grateful to the foundations for all that they have done for us,” a news release quotes Bridgeport Primary School Principal Lorna Lewis.

“Not only the students have benefited, but also the community members, in terms of where they would wait for the buses,” Lewis said and pointed to the crosswalk which, she noted, “has been repainted to make it safer for our boys and girls when they return to face-to-face classes”.

Jodi-Ann Bowen, monitoring, evaluation and special projects officer at JN Foundation, said the organisation was happy that the school has been made safer, as a result of the improvements to road safety infrastructure.

“Road safety is one of the priority areas of the JN Foundation, and we are happy that through our donor partners — the ABERTIS Foundation and UNICEF — Bridgeport Primary School has benefited from such improvements,” she said, adding that children should be protected at all cost, as they are vulnerable members of the population.

Samantha Gayle, education support consultant at UNICEF, who has responsibility for the road safety programme, said she was grateful to have upgraded the school which, before the project, did not have any safe road infrastructure in the vicinity.