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MONDAY OCTOBER 19, 2020: PORT OF SPAIN, TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO – After equipping 24 special needs schools in early July with 1,095 tablets utilizing an investment of TT$711,498.00, the Digicel Foundation is back at it again. On a mission to be of continued support to the ‘new normal’ of virtual educational learning, the Foundation has committed to merge its Connecting You programme with the Ministry’s Adopt-A-School initiative, to support an additional 44 schools in Trinidad and Tobago.
In collaboration with Digicel Business, the Foundation has answered the call from the Minister of Education; The Honourable Nyan Gatsby-Dolly for corporate citizens to join efforts to ensure that no child gets left behind in spite of challenges presented by COVID-19. The Digicel Foundation will provide 620 tablets and 200 refurbished laptops to ten (10) additional special schools and thirty-four (34) mainstream schools through this intervention. The selected schools are a mixture of special education, inner city, denominational, government, and rural schools.
With this investment of approximately TT$1.1million, the Digicel Foundation and Digicel Business will cover the cost of the devices and data packages to some of the schools. The Special Olympics TT forfeited TT$108,000 in sponsorship, which was allocated toward the now cancelled SOTT National Games and its annual Development Training programme, to assist with the nationwide venture. Additionally, strategic partner Tech Flex also contributed toward the e-learning drive for the students through free installation of the operating systems. The Foundation is currently delivering devices to the schools.
Penny Gomez, Digicel Foundation’s CEO, shared a few words on this special project; she said ‘We were thrilled to hear of the Ministry’s call to adopt a school. Having started our intervention in June, we knew that students would be left behind if additional help did not come their way soon.” She added that since the Foundation’s special need schools are now fully taken care of, the Digicel Foundation is gladly also responding to the call to adopt some mainstream schools.
Some of the schools: Russell Latapy Secondary, Barrackpore Vedic, Blanchisseuse Primary, Brasso Seco R.C., Success Laventille, Cedros AC Primary, Warrenville TIA, Charlotteville Mehtodist, Fishing Pond Presbyterian, Moriah Gov’t and Granville RC to name a few, will now have the resources to contend with the disruptions caused as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic.
Digicel Business will additionally be offering the 68 partner schools FREE Digicel high speed fibre broadband for six months. All other schools also have the opportunity to get 50% off their Digicel internet service for one year.
