TGC, Digicel Foundation gift Daniel Town students with tablets, Internet connectivity

Western Bureau:

Thanks to the Trelawny Gun Club (TGC) and the Digicel Foundation, all 150 students at the Daniel Town Primary School, in the western parish, now have tablets and the requisite Internet connectivity to participate in virtual classes, which remains a major issue for many children locally.

After recently providing the 32 students at the school, who were without tablets, with the much-needed instrument, the TCG, on realising that many of the students did not have Internet connectivity, made contact with the Digicel Foundation and through that interaction, all the students now have Internet access.

According to Richard Frazier, the secretary of the TGC, after their presentation of the tablets to the school, they learned through the school’s principal, Taneisha Williamson, that some 102 of the students either had no Internet service or unreliable service.

Frazier said the TGC decided that they would take on the responsibility of getting the Internet connectivity situation rectified, so the gun club initiated contact with Charmaine Daniels, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Digicel Foundation.

“The foundation decided that they would help to solve the problem, and they did,” said Frazier. “The foundation donated 102 SIM cards with one month’s data [plan] on each.”

DELIGHTED TO BE A PART OF INITIATIVE

When The Gleaner spoke to Daniels, she said the Digicel Foundation was delighted to partner with the TGC on such an important initiative, especially since it was benefiting the nation’s children.

“It was important for us to join with the gun club to provide Internet connectivity to the students. It was a worthwhile and wonderful decision for us,” said Daniels. “We know how valuable this would be to the education of our students in this pandemic. We didn’t bat an eye in deciding to provide these SIM cards. Not many schools can boast that all their students have Internet connectivity.”

Principal Williamson was quite gracious in thanking the gun club and the Digicel Foundation, which has put her school in the enviable position of being 100 per cent ready to accommodate virtual teaching/learning.

“You have contributed immensely to the efforts of the school to continue to reach our students in this pandemic. You going out of the way in this gesture will never ever be forgotten,” said Williamson.

The initiative, which saw the TGC coming to the assistance of the Daniel Town Primary School, started when the club, which does bird shooting in the community annually, learned that some of the students at the school were at a disadvantage because they had no tablets and decided to help.

“The principal told us that 32 of her students were without tablets and could not participate in online classes, so we decide to help,” said Frazier. “The club went out and bought the 32 tablets that were needed.”