Erica Virtue, Staff Reporter
THE GOVERNMENT'S programme to eradicate poverty is being swamped with applications from all 14 parishes requesting funding for projects.
Up to last month, the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), which was established as one of the principal vehicles to channel new investments, said there were 1,400 project requests, but funds were only available for about 400.
Some 261 applications have so far been approved at an estimated cost of $1.3 billion.
JSIF Managing Director Scarlette Gillings said last week that the primary goal of the JSIF is to contribute to improving the living standards of the poor and vulnerable, by increasing access to vital social services. However, she explained that as a result of the great need, the JSIF has had to adopt a "stringent selection process," to determine the projects most needed.
"We work closely with community-based organisations," Mrs. Gillings said last week. "We fund projects that will have long term benefit on communities, whether through the building of a basic school, sanitation programmes, or a water system."
The JSIF said $302 million of the funds were so far spent on schools, $290 million on roads, $52 million on health centres, $113 million for water supplies, and $49 million for community organisational development.
Mrs. Gillings said the JSIF has funded projects in some of the islands' most rural communities, in a joint-venture effort where the community must provide five per cent of the cost of the projects in equity.
"We find innovative ways of getting the equity from the communities," she said. "Whatever they do, a cost is attached to it and from there they make their contribution."
Persons work as watchmen, some provide storage for the materials to be used in the projects, while others give food.
According to the JSIF, the average cost of a project is $3.95 million. Approval totalling $144 million has been given for inner-city community programmes and $516 million toward youth development.
