Caribbean Cement Company Limited has donated $1.4 million in book vouchers to assist students in communities in proximity to the company’s operations in view of the resumption of face-to-face classes.

It was announced last year, through a bulletin issued by the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Information to regional directors, that face-to-face classes would resume on January 3, 2022, for all pre-primary, primary and secondary level institutions.

Valued each at $20,000, the vouchers, which are tenable at Kingston Bookshop are to go towards those students most in need.

The donation is part of a collaboration with the cement company, MultiCare Youth Foundation, and the Youth Education Association to assist the students attending North Street Primary School, Paradise Street Basic School and Harbour View Primary in Kingston and Bull Bay Primary and Infant in St Andrew, among others.

In a handover at the company’s Sports Club on January 18, Managing Director of Caribbean Cement, Yago Castro, noted that the donation represents an opportunity to build a stronger and deeper relationship between the company and members of the various community.

“It is a pleasure to be able to make this humble contribution to the welfare of students in the communities around Carib Cement. We really want you to be able to take full advantage of this contribution to improve your student life. We want you to keep on benefitting from this kind of activity into the future,” he said.

“We are committed to the people of Jamaica that is why we extensively work on our social impact programme all year long,” Castro continued.

Meanwhile, Executive Director of the MultiCare Youth Foundation Alicia Glasgow-Gentles expressed gratitude to Carib Cement for the vouchers, noting that it will go a far way in assisting students to achieve their educational goals for this academic year.  

In her remarks, Principal of North Street Primary, Cecele Smythe said the book vouchers will come in handy as they will form part of care packages being put together for some of the student population.

“We are very grateful to receive these books vouchers. We have students who are not able to afford certain resources, and this will help those students greatly,” she said.