Chinese community donates goods worth $500k to Mobay Freeport police station inmates
Published on www.jamaicaobserver.com on Wednesday February 10, 2020.
The Chinese community in western Jamaica in collaboration with the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI) recently delivered three van loads of domestic and sanitary materials to inmates of the Montego Bay Freeport police station.
The police have tagged it “filling a gap”, while the business community calls it corporate social responsibility, as it donated $500,000 worth of relief goods to the prisoners in the middle of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Inmates at the Montego
Bay Freeport police station were recently placed under quarantined owing to the outbreak of the virus in the facility, while their relatives had to adjust to temporary cessation of visitation.
In the absence of goods from their families, food, water, tissue, cup soup, cookies, toothbrush, toothpaste, dish-washing liquid, bath soap, detergent, roll-on, wash rags, towels, shampoo, and over the counter medical products, were among the hundreds of products donated.
Spokesperson for the Chinese, Yangsen Li, said his countrymen will always offer help whenever needed. “Moreover, we care about and love this island and its people that we live with, we believe in giving back to the society to have a better life altogether.”
Li, who also serves as a director of the MBCCI, and whose community long before the COVID-19 invaded the island’s shores has been helping schools, churches and NGOS, used the opportunity to implore other Jamaicans to help the police.
The donation was accepted by Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Pheonia Watson who stated that partnership was one aspect engendered by her peers, “from management to the last join member and our unsworn staff”.
She lauded the business community for selflessly giving generously in the midst of the pandemic. “So unselfish are they that persons who are most needy, inclusive of our incarcerated men, women and children within the division, benefit greatly from the generous donations even though they are provided for by the government.”
For the DSP, the donations filled the gap left by the absence of the relatives who could not access their loved ones as a result of the outbreak.
Meanwhile MBCCI president, Janet Silvera, who ‘pulled up her sleeves’ and packed boxes on to the police vehicles, spoke of the remarkable work being carried out by the Chinese since March 2020.
“Since the pandemic, the Chinese community has donated over $60 million worth of supplies and funds to people in need through SERHA, UHWI, local schools, universities, hospital, police stations, children homes, and organisations such as the Mustard Seed Communities,” she noted.
Silvera added that the community has become an integral part of the MBCCI, including her organisation in a number of crucial transformative projects.
She argued that now more than ever the police needed all the support it could possibly get from the business community.