Three lucky students walked away with scholarships valued at $30,000 each courtesy of Flow and the Discovery Channel over the weekend. Kadine Powell, Taiesha Neisha and Dahlia Reid were awarded the grants after being chosen from over 1,000 patrons who turned out at the Old Hospital Park in Montego Bay for the Flow/Discovery back to school fair on Saturday, August 24.
Kadine Powell said that the grant would greatly assist with relieving some of the burdens associated with the new school year and a pleasant surprise.
Ardette Ambersley, Kadine’s mother, noted that the scholarship would help, “in every way!” She continued to explain that, “I didn’t buy or prepare anything for back to school and now, I can finally get started.”
Dahilia Reid, an unemployed engineer was another winner of a scholarship and was proud to announce she would be giving this to her sister to help with Back to School preparations for her niece and nephews who all attended the afternoon’s events with her. “I have not been able to do much to help them since I have not been working recently, so I am pleased to be able to give this to them at this critical time,” she said as she hugged her 11 year old niece Shayane, who attends Catherine Hall Primary.
It was a day full of fun, education and excitement as parents and children were treated to special back to school gear, stationery and other supplies from various partners who came onboard to support the initiative.
Flow and the Discovery Channel also provided school bags with notebooks and other useful supplies to students who attended the Fair. Additionally, the children enjoyed a special appearance from the international broadcaster’s official mascot and animated character Doki, who entertained throughout the day showing off popular dance moves and took photos with them.
Other partners for The Flow/Discovery Back To School Fair included the Jamaica Observer, who provided free Back to School gifts for children, discounts on books in the Jamaica Observer Lecture Series and hosted the popular Learning Centre Pavilion with facepainting and a colouring zone for the children. Sangsters provided discounts on text books, The Ministry of Labour and Social Security shared information on the PATH programme, NCB provided details about its OMNI Educator plan and KFC and Wisynco provided meals and beverages for patrons throughout the afternoon. Volunteers from the National Health Fund, Cornwall Regional Hospital, University of Technology (UTECH) and CUMI provided free health checks for attendees with supplies provided by Fontana Pharmacy.
“The day has been a total success!” explained Discovery Account Manager - Affiliate Sales Yne Gonzales. “There were big smiles from children and adults who recognized Doki from watching the Discovery Kids,” she added. Parents and children on site were happy to learn about the multi-platform, multi-language learning tools available from Discovery via the Flow network online and cable TV.
Later this year, Discovery Networks Latin America introduce their cable in the classroom programming (‘Discovery En La Escuela’), which is comprised of interactive educational content that will give a boost to education delivered in the classroom as well as being useful to parents and students to deepen knowledge of topics covered in the curriculum.
The Flow/Discovery Channel partnership for Back To School is another initiative from Flow that complements the company’s Building Leaders Through Technology Programme which provides free commercial grade internet and cable to over 140 primary and secondary schools across the island.
“We are very pleased to have been able to further fulfil our commitment to give back to communities in Western Jamaica with this Back To School Fair,” said Nicole Campbell, corporate social responsibility executive for Columbus Communications Jamaica Limited, operators of Flow. “The response from the families who attended and from our public and private sector partners exceeded all expectations. We will continue to implement initiatives such as this which will enable Jamaicans to realize their full potential in education and all other endeavours.”
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