Value Our Wellness Foundation helping Mobay’s needy
MONTEGO BAY, St James
THE novel coronavirus pandemic has placed an overall strain on many Jamaicans and with that in mind a group of friends in Montego Bay decided to pool their resources in an effort to help those in need. They created the Value Our Wellness (VOW) Foundation.
In an interview with the Jamaica Observer West,
director of the foundation, Dionnie Barrett, eagerly explained how the foundation came about.
“It was a group of friends coming together and recognising that there was a gap, and we really wanted to help fill that gap. We saw that a lot of people in Montego Bay needed assistance, especially now due to the pandemic, and even if we couldn’t personally help, we wanted to use our resources, our platform to do so,” she stated.
“Our foundation anchors on the eight dimensions of wellness, and so our focus is encouraging and educating our community on the holistic approach to wellness — mental, physical, social, financial, intellectual, environmental, spiritual, and occupational. It is not just giving back monetarily, we do a lot more.”
The foundation’s inception was October last year, but Barrett is no stranger to giving back.
She shared that she, along with her now deceased mother, fed the homeless in Montego Bay as a part of their Christmas tradition for many years.
“We officially started last October, but it feels like a lifetime. Me and my mother would normally do a yearly Christmas treat; we would cook, then drive around Montego Bay and share with the homeless people. That is something we have been doing long before this foundation. Unfortunately, I lost my mother last year. I am an only child, so she was more than a mother, she was my best friend. I needed to do something in her memory so that also encouraged me to start giving back more,” she explained.
Since its inception, the team at VOW has worked on several projects such as a Christmas treat, clothing drive and an ongoing tablet drive. The tablet drive was the first major project undertaken, and to date, they have donated over 40 tablets to students, in and around Montego Bay.
“Our first major project, the tablet drive, started in October, and we are still doing it, because there are a lot of students without the resources to facilitate online learning, so we want to help out. We have sourced over 40 tablets, but we do more than tablets; we have also donated three laptops. During the Christmas holiday, we cooked on Boxing Day and we brought food for homeless people in Montego Bay. We
had a food and clothing drive as well as our Help A Single Mother Drive,” said Barrett.
“The mission of this foundation is to give back. We want to be so synonymous with giving; that once you hear the name Value Our Wellness, you know that we are here to help. We want everyone to know about us. We also want people to know that they do not have to be rich to give back or help,” she said.
“We have persons donating $500. There are persons that will reach out and say, ‘I don’t have any money, but I can donate my time’ or ‘I can donate my effort, how can I help?’ We want that. We want to encourage and inspire people as well, so they can see that if we stick together, we are stronger together,” Barrett argued.
She explained that her team members play an integral role in the successes of these projects, as they all have their individual roles, and are very active in the different communities across the city.
“Even though I am the leader on the platform, I lean heavily on the members of the team. We have Damian Green, who is very crucial in the reaching out process. He is on the ground and in contact with the different schools and members of the communities, so that we can be aware of those needing assistance,” Barrett noted.
“We have 10 core members and 15 other members. The core members are individuals who have been there since the foundation’s inception. Who would have started with their own money, because when we started the tablet drive, it was out of our own pockets,” she added.
“We all have the same goal, which is to help, so that is what we are trying to do.”