by Curlan Campbell, NOW Grenada
- Skills training centre to benefit graduates of School for Special Education
- Two schools to benefit from Water and Hygiene and Sanitisation Project (WASH)
- Spice Isle Smile Programme improving oral health literacy among students
Students graduating from the School for Special Education will soon be able to benefit from skills training once the Rotary Club of Grenada begins construction of a skills training centre. The centre will seek to facilitate students’ successful transition into society upon the completion of their formal education. The establishment of the skills training centre is among several projects approved for the year 2020.
According to President of the Rotary Club of Grenada, Judy McCutcheon, a site located at the school has already been identified, and the architectural drawing for the building design has been approved. However, since grant funding of $600,000 will not be able to be sourced from the Rotary Foundation, the Rotary Club of Grenada is currently looking at alternative funding.
“Establishing a skills training centre is necessary because after they finish school, most of them don’t have many transferable skills that they can get jobs with. We are not quite yet at the stage where we employ differently-abled people, so what we want to do is to be able to give them a skill so that they can employ themselves,” said McCutcheon.
Another major project for the Rotary Club of Grenada is the Water and Hygiene and Sanitisation Project (WASH) that will seek to improve sanitation and hygiene by installing new toilet facilities for students in two primary schools, the Grand Roy Government School and St Peter’s Roman Catholic School in Gouyave. This project is expected to cost US$34,225 and the grant proposal to execute the WASH project is currently being prepared.
“This project will replace and repair broken toilets, urinals and replace the septic tank because currently, the bathrooms used by the children are really in a deplorable condition and we want to ensure that our children go to school in an environment that is conducive to learning,” she said.
The Rotary Club of Grenada is also playing its role in improving oral health literacy among students through the Spice Isle Smile Programme which started 2 years ago. This programme is a partnership between the Rotary Club of Grenada and US-based dentist, Dr Brian Holmes.
At present, under the Spice Isle Smile Programme, St Peter’s Roman Catholic School, Bonaire Government, and Chantimelle Roman Catholic schools are benefitting from free dental check-ups which include restorative procedures and extraction. The dental programme began on Monday, 10 February 2020, with the US$25,000 cost to undertake the project borne by Dr Holmes and his team.
McCutcheon said the aim is to have a 70% reduction in tooth decay among students within primary schools. “This programme is going to teach oral hygiene and seek to establish a positive relationship between the students and the dental team, because the idea is to follow the same children over 5 years so that you can track their progress in their oral hygiene so when the first 5 years is finished, then we start with a new set of children hopefully within different schools.”
In 2019, the Rotary Club of Grenada collaborated with Rotary Grenada East to facilitate a team of ophthalmologists associated with Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity (VOSH) which is an international eye clinic dedicated to providing people with the gift of sight. In Grenada 1,164 patients benefitted from the programme. In February, the Rotary Club of Grenada will be commemorating the 115th anniversary of Rotary International, and in recognition of this milestone, Rotary International has designated February as “Peacebuilding and Conflict Prevention Month”. The local arm of Rotary will also be embarking on a major fundraiser for Rotary Foundation.
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