Carib Cement supports access to education and safety in schools

Forty-four students from the Bull Bay, Rockfort, Mountain View/Vineyard Town and Clarendon areas have received technology support towards their education, from corporate giants, Carib Cement Company Limited.

Also, in advancing its education and technological support, Carib Cement will donate ten laptops to teachers to help in the delivery of online education.

According to Yago Castro, General Manager at Carib Cement Company Limited, today, digital learning has emerged as a necessary resource for students and schools all over the world. For many educational institutes, this is an entirely new way of education that they have had to adopt.

“We understand the challenges posed by COVID-19 and the disruptive effects on the education sector,” Castro said.

“We have been working with our communities to help address health and safety needs of schools as well as ways of improving access to education through technology,” he added.

Online learning is now applicable not just to learn academics but it also extends to learning extracurricular activities for students as well.

According to Klao Bell-Lewis, Head of Communications, Social Impact and Media Strategy at Carib Cement Company Limited, in recent months, the demand for online learning has risen significantly, and it will continue doing so in the future.

“We worked with communities to identify most relevant needs. Our hope is for our intervention to have significant transformational effect on families, and will motivate young people to persevere, despite the odds,” Bell-Lewis said.

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered new ways of learning. All around the world, educational institutions are looking toward online learning platforms to continue with the process of educating students.

Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Fayval Williams, in her keynote address said with technology being embedded in every aspect of our daily lives, the Ministry wants to ensure that all students are connected and gain the skills they need to operate in a world, that is becoming more and more technology infused.

“Thanks to Carib Cement for making this significant donation to the schools and residents of the Bull Bay and Rockfort Community,” Williams said.

“It is a permanent gift to the education sector as we try to live through the pandemic and help our students stay connected in the teaching and learning experience that they so deserve,” she added.

Principal of Donald Quarrie High School, Talbert Weir, said the impact of the gesture is immeasurable because most of the students at the institution do not have access or gadgets for online learning.

“This gesture will not only aid students of the Donald Quarrie High School but also the other recipients. Our students will tell you that having a device makes life that much easier for them.

The company having adjusted its usual CSR budget to have impact in the area most needed, supporting education and youth during the pandemic, has invested $10 million in education support since 2020.

Over $2.3 million has been allocated to health and safety items to schools, and these include sinks to create additional hand washing stations and hand sanitizers and soaps.

Additionally, $2.5 million in school uniforms have been distributed to rural schools, while the company also donated $1 million to the MultiCare YUTE Foundation and $250,000 to expand the delivery of an online Math Learning programme developed by the Rockfort Youth Development Council.

Supporting communities through donations of hand sanitisers and soaps

Our close engagement with communities has led to our responding quickly to participate in mitigating against the risks of COVID-19. Since March, we have had several partnerships and interventions in communities close to our plant by way of donations 3300 bottles of hand sanitisers and 3300 bottles of soap to communities in Bull Bay, East Kingston and Woodside, Clarendon. In the collage, General Manager, Yago Castro delivers donations to the Most Honourable Juliet Holness, Member of Parliament for East Rural St. Andrew (where our quarries are located); while Jerome Cowans, CSR Specialist delivers donations to community representatives Ms. Jones Stewart (top left) and Mr. Melvin Brown (bottom left) of communities close to our Rockfort plant and lime quarry in Clarendon respectively.

Carib Cement donates PPE to front line workers

Caribbean Cement Company has supported front line health workers with contributions of 2000 pairs of medical gloves, 2000 N95 masks and 16 quick read thermometers to the Southern Regional Health Authority (SRHA) and the South East Regional Health Authority of the Ministry of Health. Together, these regions include 14 hospitals and 164 health centers in eight parishes. The donations were handed over by Yago Castro, General Manager of Carib Cement to Dr Christopher Tufton, Minister of Health and Wellness and to Mrs. Doreen Golding, Regional Manager of SERHA. Donations took place in April and June 2020.

In continuing the CEMEX Global Supply Chain Vulnerable Road Users initiative, CEMEX Jamaica and Caribbean Cement Company Limited teams donated reflector strips to the Clarendon Cycle Club recently. These strips will be used by club members who will also distribute them to pedal cyclists who they encounter without reflectors.

Just before a recent 192-kilometer ride from the parish of Clarendon to Montego Bay, the club members engaged in a discussion with Clinton O’ Connor, CEMX/Carib Cement’s Driving School Instructor.   The cyclists received guidance on: personal protective equipment (PPE) including foot straps, helmets, and clothing; correct placement of reflector strips; blind spots of a truck; mindfulness of other road users including pedestrians; adherence to the road code and safe riding practices.

The Road Safety Unit in the Ministry of Transport reports that in 5 years there have been 137 fatal crashes involving pedal cyclists resulting in 139 deaths. The highest number was 32 , while so far this year 22 crashes have been reported.  The Unit says pedal cyclists are among the most vulnerable users of Jamaican roads and included in its safety tips are that riders: wear bright coloured clothing; avoid riding at night; wear helmets, knee and elbow pads; consider the bicycle to be a vehicle; and follow all traffic laws as they are also applicable to bicycles.

Yago Castro, General Manager of Carib Cement said health and safety is a number one priority and is the reason behind the support of this initiative.

Jamaica Pre-Mix and Carib Cement collaborated in May to clean Nelson Mandela Park, in Half-Way Tree; St. William Grant’s Park located in downtown, Kingston, and the park located in Papine Square, St. Andrew.

Carib Cement donates decontamination unit to Rollington Town Fire Station

Fire stations need an area where officers can decontaminate safely when they return from fighting a blaze.  Now, due to the intervention of the employees of the Caribbean Cement Company Ltd, what has been said to be the only functioning decontamination unit has been built at the Rollington Town Fire Station in Kingston.

Yago Castro, General Manager of Caribbean Cement Ltd on behalf of his team, officially handed over the unit to Superintendent Julian Davis-Buckle of the Kingston and St. Andrew Division.

The unit, an addition to the existing building and which houses wash areas, showers and a large specialist industrial washing machine, will allow the officers to exit from their trucks directly to this space.