The Universal Service Fund (USF) on Friday, February 4 handed over a cheque valued at US$2,000 to finance broadband internet for the virtual staging of Reggae Month 2022.

This is the second year that USF has partnered with the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment, and Sport to provide broadband internet for Reggae Month activities.

Culture Minister Olivia Grange, speaking at the handover ceremony said: “We are very happy that Reggae Month is benefitting from this partnership. The USF has helped us to take to the virtual space the Accompong Maroon celebrations last year. They have assisted us in converting the Creative Production and Training Centre into a live studio. They assisted us last year during Reggae Month and again this year.”

The minister added that the staging of Reggae Month virtually in 2021 allowed them to reach more persons than in previous years.

Chairman of the USF, Justin Morin, added that: “Our mandate is to ensure that persons across Jamaica have access to the internet and I think this is such an appropriate partnership between USF and the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment, and Sport and the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission, to help you to showcase an important event such as Reggae Month; not only to Jamaicans in Jamaica but Jamaicans in the Diaspora.” 

In the past, the USF has provided free Wi-Fi access at Independence Village which forms part of Jamaica’s Independence activities.

USF said it will be having further discussions with the Ministry in regards to the support that can be provided through existing projects and new initiatives to facilitate a successful Jamaica 60.

Residents of Stewarton District, Mocho in Clarendon North Central, are now able to access the Internet, free of cost, at a designated area in their community.

This follows the launch of a community Wi-Fi hotspot in Stewarton Square by the Universal Service Fund (USF) on Thursday, March 10.

Community Wi-Fi hotspots are central locations within communities where citizens can access free Internet service. This is the first community Wi-Fi hotspot to be installed in the Clarendon North Central constituency.

The USF is working to establish 189 community Wi-Fi hotspots islandwide by the end of March 2022, to facilitate increased public Internet access.

In his address at the launch, Director of Projects, USF, Kwan Wilson, informed that under this thrust, three locations per constituency will be outfitted with a community Wi-Fi hotspot.

He noted that a budget of $7.5 million was allocated to establish three Wi-Fi hotspots in the Clarendon North Central constituency in the areas identified by Member of Parliament, Robert Morgan.

Wilson informed that the other two hotspots will be implemented in the communities of Mocho and Rock River, “in short order”.

He advised residents not to abuse the facility by using it for illegal activities and implored them not to vandalise the equipment.

Morgan, who is also Minister without Portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister, with responsibility for Information, said the establishment of the hotspot is a very important development for the residents of Stewarton, which will have “a big impact on the community [and] will change people’s lives”, especially the children.

“If you give a child access to the Internet, you have basically opened up a window to the world. What you have now done is you have made this child equal to a child in New York, a child in Miami, a child in Kingston… because knowledge is the greatest equaliser. The ability of our children to access information and to learn is the most sustainable way for us to move our families from poverty to prosperity,” he said.

He reminded residents that the Wi-Fi hotspot belongs to them and they have a duty to protect it.

Morgan said it is a symbol of “how much the Government cares about the people of Mocho, the people of Stewarton, and the people of North Central Clarendon”.

Principal of the Stewarton Basic School, Paula Manning, said that as a member of the community, she is grateful to Morgan and the team from USF that the community was selected to benefit from this service.

“We are grateful that this community was considered and… [as] the first community from the constituency [to benefit] we are somewhat special. That is a great gift for us… and it shows us that the Member of Parliament is thinking about us,” she said.

Board Chair of Mocho Primary and Stewarton Basic School, and Guidance Counsellor for Lennon High School, Ainsworth Kelly, also expressed gratitude for the service.

Councillor of the Mocho Division, Romaine Morris, said the hotspot “is what Mocho people need” in a digital era.

He noted that this is the best way to develop Mocho, where people can earn money legitimately through access to the Internet.

Source: Jamaica Observer

Jones Town in South St Andrew is the latest community to benefit from access to free reliable Internet service as the Government continues to roll out its Wi-Fi hotspot programme across the island.

The $7.5-million facility, situated at the Jones Town Primary School, was officially commissioned on Friday by Chief Executive Officer of the Universal Service Fund (USF), Daniel Dawes.

It forms part of the Government’s efforts to provide Internet connectivity so that citizens can do business, work, learn, earn, among other things.

Dawes, in his remarks at the commissioning ceremony, said that the agency is on track to establish 189 community hotspots islandwide before the end of the financial year.

“We are way beyond 100,” he noted.

He said the Fund will continue to provide public Wi-Fi in critical town centres and 10 community access points (CAPs). “We have already launched a number of them throughout the length and breadth of Jamaica,” he shared.

Dawes said that Jones Town Primary School has been furnished with computers, “so anybody can leave from the community and go to this space, do your assignments, do your business transactions”.

He informed that additional hotspots will be established in South St Andrew in the community of Trench Town and at the Charlie Smith High School in Arnett Gardens before the end of the month.

Meanwhile, Dawes said that the Fund is in discussion with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to assist in the resuscitation of several CAP sites.

“We are also in discussion with HEART/NSTA Trust to ensure that these facilities are used for the training of young people in the immediate communities and beyond,” he said.

Leader of the Opposition and Member of Parliament for South St Andrew, Mark Golding, urged the residents to make use of the service being provided to empower themselves.

“Don’t use it for nastiness and to spread badness and negative things,” he said.

He noted the importance of making investments in improving the lives of people.

“It is investments in the people that generate the kind of society we need… and if we invest in the people, the returns will be great. People’s lives will improve, and life will be better,” Golding pointed out.

Chairman of Jones Town Primary School, Patrick Rose, welcomed the establishment of the facility, noting that providing the community with free Internet service “is a step in the right direction”.

– JIS News 

Delano Tucker, whose story of abject poverty and hardship touched many Jamaicans, has tugged at the heartstrings of the Universal Service Fund (USF) staff, prompting them to reach out and make donations to the 17-year-old boy and his 13-year-old sister Deneisha.

Daniel Dawes, chief executive officer of USF, presented the Tucker siblings with brand-new laptops at their school, Guy’s Hill High, on Tuesday.

Delano is in grade 12 while his sister is an eighth-grader.

The teenager, in a viral video aired by Street Driven.tv, expressed a desire to enrol at the College of Agriculture, Science and Education when he graduates from Guy’s Hill. He already scored passes in nine subjects at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate level.

Cecil Donald, principal of Guy’s Hill High, told The Gleaner that Tucker has always been a remarkable student, doing well despite his challenges at home. Staff at the rural school have always offered support to the teenager, he said.

“We are grateful for the generous outpouring of support from people in Jamaica and across the diaspora. We are confident that he will do well as he goes on to further studies,” said Donald.

Delano expressed gratitude to the USF and sought to assure the team that he and his sister would make good use of the devices.

The teenager had struggled over the last two years of school, with classes migrating online because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Delano did not, for long stretches, have a reliable device and was hampered by inaccessibility to the Internet.

USF Marketing and Public Relations Manager Carlene Davis told The Gleaner that ensuring that Jamaicans have access to information via the Internet is a pillar of the agency’s mandate and purpose. The USF is targeting the installation of free Wi-Fi hotspots in 189 communities across the 63 political constituencies across Jamaica.

“It makes no sense to have the Internet and you don’t have the device to access the Internet, so this is our way of ensuring that he is able to advance his educational pursuits,” said Davis.

Source: The Gleaner