St Faiths Primary to receive modern sanitary facilities through JSIF

Karen Sudu, Gleaner Writer

GLENGOFFE, St Catherine:FOR THE 124 students at St Faiths Primary school in Glengoffe, St Catherine, using pit latrines will soon become a thing of the past.

The institution is set to benefit from modern sanitary facilities to be constructed under a Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) implemented project financed to the tune of $7.4 million by the PetroCaribe Development Fund

"The project is scheduled to start next week Monday and we expect it to last for about eight weeks," Rudyard Williams, JSIF project manager for technical services, told The Gleaner. "We will be constructing an eight-seater, with a urinal - three for boys and five for girls. Two of the toilets will be disabled friendly."

Speaking at the project information meeting on Wednesday, North Central St Catherine Member of Parliament Natalie Neita-Headley said she has been on a drive to remove pit latrines from schools across her constituency.

"We were able to do the one at Sargeantville last year, and we did that one from the Constituency Development Fund," she told the audience. "We are now looking at the one at Giblatore; the only problem is that Giblatore does not have running water at this time."

become watchdogs

With regard to the facilities to be built at St Faiths Primary, she implored residents of the community to be watchdogs to ensure that the project comes to fruition.

Warned Neita-Headley: "It is going to be important that community members understand that this project is for the community, and that if materials are dropped here and you take them away from here to help to build your own homes, it deprives children of the same materials to be able to build that bathroom."

Meanwhile, Anne Geddes-Nelson, principal of the institution, was elated.

"I am happy that students at St Faiths Primary will be exposed to modern sanitary facilities," she remarked. "It has been a long time that we have been waiting for this to happen, and seeing it now becoming a reality is good news for all of us - the community, the parents, the students all of us," said Nelson.

Like Geddes-Nelson, the parents were equally happy.

"I was here from the very first day that (JSIF) came here and I highly appreciate what they are going to do because we need modern facilities and this has been a long time coming, so we are happy and grateful," Yvonne Sutherland told The Gleaner.