[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he new school year has opened for Ave Maria Girls Primary School students and their teachers with improved air circulation, equipment, cooling fans and a more aesthetically stimulating environment in the school’s library.
The scheduling of the donation and library upgrades coincided with the observance of International Literacy Day on September 8th.
The Ave Maria Girls Primary School project was the second CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank’s Adopt-A-Cause activity for this year. The project initially set out to donate a much needed projector and laptop to facilitate more interactive learning, and to relieve the issues of air quality and heat during the summer months.
A site visit to the school’s library inspired an upscaling of the project, to include beautification of the space, with the creation of a prominent Cat in the Hat mural and similar other aesthetic additions.
Mrs. Cyra Fletcher, the school’s librarian described the library upgrade as “something which we urgently needed to address a dwindling interest in reading in general, and to help make leaning more interactive”. She said the library beautification is already “paying off, as the children find the environment more visually stimulating and child-friendly.”
The Adopt-A-Cause project is the bank’s community flagship programme. It is intended to serve as a mechanism through which staff interact with their host communities “not as service providers, but as neighbours and friends” explained CIBC FirstCaribbean Country Manager, Ladesa James-Williams. In that regard, Adopt-A-Cause projects are researched and selected by the employees of the bank. Over the years, the programme has become both a community “give-back exercise and a team bonding activity” which employees eagerly anticipate, Mrs. Williams added.
Approximately 30 staff members from various operational units of the bank dedicated their Saturday to the project. In some instances, children accompanied their parent in the exercise which one team member described as “teaching our children to develop community spirit and to appreciate community building as a responsibility of every citizen”.
The completion of the Montessori School road safety project last week, and that at the Ave Maria School Girls Primary School this week, have now expanded the Adopt-A-Cause footprint island-wide to eleven learning institutions.
Source: CIBC First Caribbean
