Wheelchair ramps to be installed at 130 facilities
The Digicel Foundation recently donated $1 million towards the Government of Jamaica’s (GOJ) Workers’ Week and Labour Day 2018 activities, to be carried out under the theme ‘Ramp it Up, Fix it Up’.
The national initiative will commence on Labour Day, May 23, and will run for one year to allow for wheelchair ramps to be installed at 130 facilities that have been identified across the island.
Through its mandate to increase accessibility and inclusion for persons with special needs, the Digicel Foundation is further partnering with the National Education Trust (NET) to build more ramps this year to improve access for students with special needs as part of the foundation’s ongoing Ramps In Schools programme.
Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Digicel Foundation Karlene Dawson said: “We are so happy to be able to partner with the GOJ for this very important Labour Day initiative and with the NET to further our own work with increasing access for persons with special needs. It is a project that is in full alignment with one of our core mandates, and we have always found that we achieve excellence through collaboration.”
The partnership will also see hundreds of Digicel volunteers fully involved in completing the ramps at the Portmore Self-Help Disability Organisation and Cumberland Road Health Centre in St Catherine.
“It can be very difficult for our physically challenged members of society to access essential services,” said Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange, minister of culture, gender, entertainment and sport, at the Workers’ Week and Labour Day activities launch on May 1.
“We have a duty to build out an enabling environment so that generations to come will have a platform on which to continue the work to make Jamaica the place of choice to live, work, raise families and do business.”