Two corporate entities have made a substantial donation to the Adele School for
Special Education to finance it breakfast feeding programme.
The donations were made by PDV Caribe which donated $10,000.00 and The West
Indies Oil Company another $10,000.00. The money goes towards funding the
breakfast programme for the school’s 60 students for a period of a year.
“PDV CAB has had a long-standing relationship with the Adele School. In 2008
when we launched the People’s Benefit Programme, we reached out to the
institution, and applications to the PBP from households with students at the Adele
School were fast tracked. Since then, we have continuously approved new students
at the Adele School to the People’s Benefit Programme,” Office Administrator for
the programme, Jellette Ralph stated.
She added that when PDV Caribe got wind that the Adele school was in need of
financial assistance to fund the breakfast programme, it immediately responded
with a positive ‘yes’,” she explained.
“Our management team determined that it is indeed a worthy initiative and reached
out to West Indies Oil Company Limited for joint sponsorship. PDV CAB and
WIOC have also had a very beneficial relationship and we were delighted that they
honoured our request to partner on this initiative,” Ralph added.
The Adele School will now benefit from an annual funding of EC$20,000; that’s
EC$10,000.00 each annually from both companies to be disbursed termly. “We
want to express our best wishes to the Adele School and we can only trust that the
students will now have a wider variety of nutritious items on the menu to make up
the first and most important meal of the day,” she declared.
WIOC Chief Executive Officer, Gregory Georges, said his company was happy to
respond to the request from the Adele school because it aligns with its corporate
social responsibility. He noted that WIOC is majority owned by the people of
Antigua and Barbuda and as such it has a responsibility to ‘give back’ to the
community.
Georges got emotional during the brief ceremony as he said he easily identified
with the goals of the school as he was once the father of a child with special needs.
Deputy Principal at the school, Jacqueline Azille-Joseph said the overall budget for
the breakfast programme amounts to between $25,000.00 and $30,000.00 annual.
She said the $20-thousand is a big boost to the programme and it will allow them
to expand on the meals offered at the school. She explained that the programme
was started when it was recognized that several of the students often arrived at
school without having breakfast, the most important meal of the day. She said this
was because many students are from homes where providing adequately for their
children is a constant challenge.
