What does football; the police and technology have in common? From the onset these seemingly remotely connected entities or disciplines may appear to be a mismatch when used in the same sentence, but in fact it is the basis for one of the most innovative humanitarian efforts to nurture fraternity and goodwill between men and ladies in uniform from New York City to reach out to the rest of the world.
The catalyst behind the Grenada leg of this initiative is led by the mobile application based firm PromoCaribbean, and will be rolled out from 23 April with over a week of charitable community events and friendly football matches led by the New York Police Department (NYPD) football team in collaboration with the Grenada Football Association, and the Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF).
In an era when we define communities beyond geographic spaces and national boundaries, the Grenada diaspora in NY many of whom are affiliated with law enforcement in the United States, and their colleagues are making a journey to Grenada to help strengthen the bonds between St George’s and New York; while also deepening their ties with the local community and with the RGPF; as local lawmen also build friendships, network, and share knowledge and expertise to help deliver a higher quality service to the citizens they have sworn to protect.
PromoCaribbean, a company started by a Grenadian entrepreneur based in Canada, is one of the fastest growing mobile application-based platforms for networking the Caribbean community globally, and have partnered with the NYPD in its annually held charitable event to encourage the importance of sports and education in youth development. Humanitarian trips in the past have been held in South Korean, Ecuador and Haiti. Its latest initiative in Grenada beyond the humanitarian objectives is to promote Grenada’s tourism, and stimulate interest in e-commerce/internet-based business, especially among the island’s youth.
From speaking with Nigel Jones, the CEO of PromoCaribbean he said, “As the explosive rise in technology begin to transform the economic landscape of territories worldwide, and creates one of the fastest means of generating sustainable income without restrictions based on a person’s demography or geographic location, I want to ensure that small islands like Grenada gets into this vibrant stream and maximise its potential, I also believe that economic empowerment is one of the best ways to overcome poverty and other social ills which affect our people in the region.”
Jones along with Ret. Officer Larry Roberts of the NYPD arrived ahead of the team on 23 April and was joined by over 25 other team members on 30 April to begin a week of events in various communities throughout Grenada, including school visits, visits to the Bacolet Juvenile Detention Centre and a star-studded game featuring the President’s 11 versus the visitors at Victoria Park in Grenville on Thursday, 2 May 2019 at 4pm.
According to officer Ret. Lt. Ron Mejia from the visiting team, “Grenada has become not just a fantastic getaway for many of our officers, but its people, natural beauty, peace and safety is exceptional, and we at the NYPD will love to help preserve and promote this. We love this island and many of our officers who are originally not from this part of the world have returned on several occasions after our visits to experience more of the Caribbean.”
On this year’s the team will donate soccer equipment to schools and other community-based organisations, and will focus its energies on hosting motivational sessions in a few schools throughout Grenada, and launching an inter-school challenge to get students to develop an business concept which utilises technology to solve a problem in their communities or generate a new business. The winning school will be presented with a website and the students will be mentored to grow and develop their online business by the technology team at PromoCaribbean. A full description of the challenge, along with the week of activities is listed on the PromoCaribbean website www.promogrenada.com, and the general public is invited to support and follow the activities of team while they are in Grenada.
PromoCaribbean
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I think that’s a very good thing pm mitchell did ,to join tides with the outside world, as a concern citizen i would say very good work mr. Pm