News From Grantees And Members January – March 2011

by | Feb 15, 2018 | News Archive | 0 comments

Jamaica Environment Trust (JET)

EFJ member and grantee share the first issue of their annual Jetter newsletter highlighting activities and achievements of the organization in 2010. Jetter Newsletter Vol.1 No1. For further information on JET visit their website at www.jamentrust.org

The JET Schools Environment Programme, funded by EFJ was also featured in the media in March. Read here for details.

Agency Inner City Renewal

Child sector grantee the Agency for Innercity Renewal (AIR) located in Trench Town, was awarded a grant of $5,000,000.00 to raise the awareness of school personnel, community leaders, parents, students,  towards the harmful effects of crime and violence on children. This is being done through the development of a counseling intervention programme to prevent and militate against crime-induced trauma in children in three Basic Schools within communities in the Kingston Western Police Division.

Consultant with Counselor discussing and analyzing data obtained from the project


University of the West Indies (UWI)

Highlights from a few of our UWI projects. The Centre for Marine Sciences housed in the Department of Life Sciences hosted a national workshop on Ballast Water Management and Marine Invasive Species in Jamaica as a part of the EFJ funded project to Investigate the Impact of Marine Invasive Species on Jamaica’s Biodiversity through the Release of Ballast Water. This project sampled international vessels coming into Jamaica with Ballast Water and analyzed these samples for potential marine invasive species. The workshop was attended by stakeholders from relevant government agencies in the areas of fisheries and the environment as well as representatives from the shipping industry and the National Coast Guard.

The Marine Geology Unit from the Department of Geography and Geology launched the EFJ funded publication ‘Physical Impacts by Recent Hurricanes on the Coast of Jamaica’‘. The book which will be issued as a volume of the Occasional Report series of the Geology Department looks at the impact of Hurricane Dean as well as Ivan with some mention made of Felix and Emily.

Dr. Mona Webber of the Department of Life Sciences will be honored at the UWI Awards Ceremony in recognition of Outstanding Researchers for her work in the EFJ funded project The Mangrove Ecosystem: A Biodiversity Hotspot.

 

Tropical Medical Research Institute (TMRI), UWI 

The TMRI hosted a dissemination meeting on Wednesday, March 16, 2011, at the Mona Visitor’s Lodge to present the recently completed research, which involved training teachers in classroom behavior management and how to promote children’s social-emotional competence. The research has been funded by EFJ since its inception in 2005 and a pilot study of the intervention in 2005-2006 funded by EFJ, UNICEF Jamaica and the Office of the Principal at UWI conducted a larger trial in 2009-2010 funded by The Wellcome Trust and EFJ.
 
The UWI will begin discussions of how the training can be made widely available to early childhood educators, including teachers in the early primary grades and will help to inform the wider dissemination of the intervention.
 
 

Paediatric Association of Jamaica (PAJ)

 
The Paediatric Association of Jamaica launched its safety poster “Be Wise, Supervise” at the Bustamante Hospital for Children on February 16, 2011, under the distinguished patronage of Her Excellency Lady Patricia Allen.
 
As part of the PAJ’s mandate of outreach, education, and advocacy for children, the poster is directed at educating the caregivers of Jamaica about methods of preventing some of the more common injuries that occur in young children. The catchphrase of the poster is “Be wise. Supervise”. The poster has information this is easily understood and is based on the successful booklet Safety and your Child published in 2008. The poster is to be made available to Health Centres and Early Childhood institutions throughout the length and breadth of the island. The printing of the poster was sponsored by a grant of $1.9M from the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica.

Caribbean Coastal Area Management Foundation (CCAM)

CCAM is one of a number of NGOs who have been designated management responsibility for the islands’ fish sanctuaries and were the chief organizers of the two-day Fish Sanctuary Retreat held in March. The Retreat funded by EFJ brought together 5 fish sanctuary management organizations who have the responsibility of a total of 8 sanctuaries. Issues surrounding, management, enforcement, monitoring, baseline surveys, communications among many others were discussed and mapped out at the Retreat. Relevant government agency representatives were also available to provide guidance on the next steps.