Victoria Mutual donates $300,000 to the NIA

THE NATIONAL Integrity Action (NIA) last Friday received a $300,000 donation from Victoria Mutual (VM) to assist with endeavours to improve leadership standards for the youth.

Naketa West, Victoria Mutual Foundation manager, stated that VM felt the need to support the NIA because the work it is doing aligns with one of the foundation’s mandates. “Victoria Mutual is interested in youth empowerment, leadership and nationbuilding, which are key areas of the foundation and aligns with the NIA’s aim. The contribution is geared towards improving leadership standards in Jamaica and the NIA has the same mandate, so partnering with them was ideal.”

The NIA has a youth arm, Integrity Action Movement, in tertiary institutions with the aim of educating students of these institutions on governance and the full ambit of advocacy. So far, three institutions are involved, The University of the West Indies (UWI), Church Teachers’ College (CTC) and University of Technology (UTech). Jamie Chevannes, project aid of the NIA, explained that the Integrity Action Movement has been running at The UWI for approximately three years, but only recently started at UTech and CTC. “We are still in the recruitment and marketing phase at CTC and UTech, but we have seen improvements in the way the students are speaking up, and their interest in governance has grown.”

At The UWI, however, there are many different initiatives that have taken place, and one of the improvements seen is the readiness with which students question their guild and the administration. As a result of the work done at the tertiary institutions, The youth arm at UWI is planning a campaign next semester to run concurrently with the UWI Guild elections. “The campaign will encourage students to vote on issues and not popularity,” Chevannes explained.