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TIP Friendly Society awards 40 scholarships valued $1.78M

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#Jamaica, August 29, 2017 – Kingston – Forty students have received scholarships valued at $1.78 million from the TIP Friendly Society for the 2017/18 academic year, which begins in September.   Thirty-two scholarships were awarded to students who successfully sat the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT), while the remaining eight were presented to tertiary students.

Twenty-six GSAT students received scholarships valued at $30,000 each.   The other six scholarships, valued at $35,000 each, were presented to students whose parents are members of TIP Society branches in Westmoreland, Manchester and St. Catherine.

The $35,000 scholarships were named in honour of past TIP parish Board members.   They include Stafford Blake (Westmoreland), Judith Thompson (Manchester), and Livingston Allen (St. Catherine).

All eight tertiary scholarships were awarded to students who are members of TIP.   Three are undergraduate students, who were each awarded the $100,000 Sylvia Spence Scholarship, named in honour of the former TIP Board member.   The five postgraduate students were each awarded the $110,000 Vilma Lawes-Munroe Scholarship, also named in honour of a past Board member.

The presentations were made at the 16th TIP scholarship awards ceremony at The Knutsford Court Hotel in New Kingston on Friday, August 25 Guest speaker, Education, Youth and Information Minister, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, congratulated the students on their academic achievements, and lauded TIP for its partnership in educating the nation’s youth.

The Minister also reiterated the Government’s commitment to ensuring that every child has access to education.  He further noted that the Administration remains steadfast in its undertaking to diversify the education sector’s provisions to ensure every child receives the requisite support to achieve academic excellence.

This, Senator Reid pointed out, is being targeted through the early-education component of the Programme of Advancement through Health and Education (PATH) which has assisted more than 40,000 children; and the Career Advancement Programme (CAP), which has seen 48,301 students trained in technical and vocational skills and 5,622 enrolling in the general programme of literacy and numeracy.

“I am excited that we are extending the capacity and that we now have the opportunity to have everybody in not just a five-year programme but a seven-year programme to guarantee that every youngster will have the opportunity to fulfil their dream of education and development.   That would be a fantastic programme for Jamaica’s future development,” he said.

Meanwhile, General Manager of TIP, Wilton South, challenged the scholarship recipients to participate in nation building through academic excellence.

“As we offer (these) 40 scholarships to some of the brightest young minds across Jamaica, we feel honoured (that) we are able to give back to our TIP family that has supported us over the years.   We (will continue to) support education from the primary to the tertiary level,” he said.

TIP Friendly Society (TIP) is a non-profit insuring society for persons employed in the field of education.

 

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CARPHA Progresses to Eligibility for the First Disbursement of Pandemic Funding

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Following a landmark Public Signing Ceremony for the Pandemic Fund (PF) Technical Cooperation Agreement (“Reducing the Public Health Impact of Pandemics in the Caribbean through Prevention, Preparedness, and Response” [RG-T4387] Project) on December 14, 2023, in Trinidad, the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) continues to progress towards the start of implementation.

 CARPHA fulfilled the IDB’s nine conditions prior to first disbursement, achieving full eligibility on March 15, 2024, and is now eligible for the first disbursement. This milestone achievement in just 3 months after the signing speaks to the commitment of both CARPHA, the Executing Agency, and IDB, the Implementing Entity, toward the regional PF project with the objective of supporting the reduction of the public health impact of pandemics in the Caribbean by building pandemic prevention, preparedness and response (PPR) surveillance & early-warning systems (EWS), laboratory systems and workforce capacity, regionally at CARPHA and in countries.

Since the signing of the Technical Cooperation Agreement and as part of the conditions prior to first disbursement, CARPHA has achieved the following key outputs (i) the development of the PF Project Operations Manual, Multi-annual Execution Plan, Procurement Plan, Financial Plan, Procedure for CARPHA’s Financial Reporting System; (ii) vacancy announcements for two tranches of consultants with the subsequent hiring of five (Technical Coordinator, Financial Specialist, Procurement Specialist, Operations Officer and Project Operations Coordinator) and (iii) the establishment of the Project Execution Unit (PEU) and Project Execution Steering Committee (PESC). The dedicated PEU will be responsible for execution according to its planned timelines, which will be led by the Dr. Lisa Indar, the Project Director (CARPHA’s Director of Surveillance, Disease Prevention and Control Division).

 CARPHA, as the lead regional public health agency and an expression of Caribbean Cooperation in Health is mandated by its Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) to support its 26 CARPHA Member States (CMS) in bolstering national systems and coordinating regional response to public health threats. The Agency works closely with regional and international agencies and uses regional mechanisms, surveillance systems, and networks for coordinating its public health response work.

In July 2023, the PF Governing Board announced that CARPHA’s regional entity proposal, entitled ‘Reducing the Public Health Impact of Pandemics in the Caribbean through Strengthened Integrated Early Warning Surveillance, Laboratory Systems and Workforce Development’ was successfully selected for the first round of financing. It was one of only 19 proposals selected from over 300 submissions and the only regional project. The three priority areas in the proposal are: (i) Comprehensive disease surveillance and EWS, (ii) Laboratory systems and (iii) Human resources and public health and community workforce capacity.

This project is expected to begin implementation in March 2024, starting off with a blended onboarding session. A Stakeholder Meeting with countries is tentatively planned for July 2024.

CARPHA remains dedicated to working together with the IDB, CARPHA Member States and the Pandemic Fund to successfully implement the regional proposal geared toward reducing the public health impact of pandemics in the Caribbean.

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Men who had Murdered Man, Marley Higgs’ cell phone face Court

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Wilkie Arthur

Freelance Court Correspondent

The prosecution intends to try two young North Caicos men, both age 21 for the offense of possession of property of a murdered man, property that was stolen and landed in their possession.

The phone belonged to Peureton ‘Marley’ Higgs, who is believed to have been an innocent gunned down at his apartment complex in the Glass Shack area in a spray of bullets on February 2 that killed another man and wounded two others, including a ten-year-old little girl.

The cell phone was described as white in colour, an iPhone, in a hard black case. 

On Monday, March 18th, JEFFVANO HANDFIELD of North Caicos pleaded not guilty to the offense, and the matter was adjourned to April 2024. He was granted bail in the matter.

A second North Caicos man was charged similarly.  

SARENO CAPELLAN aka, Kino Williams is the second individual brought before the court pertaining to the said cellphone. He appeared in court a week after JEFFVANO HANDFIELD, the date being Monday March 25th 2024.

The case for the Crown is that both men sometime in February of this year possessed the cellphone knowing or suspecting it to be stolen property.

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Supreme Court Closed for Easter

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NOTICE is hereby given that the Easter Recess shall commence on Friday 29th April, 2024 and end on Friday 5th April, 2024. During the Easter Recess Judge Selochan will be available to deal only with matters that are urgent or require prompt attention.

Court Business During the Easter Recess

A person who wishes to have a matter heard during the recess must file a certificate of urgency along with an affidavit, which must set out the reasons why the matter is urgent or requires prompt attention. The matter will not be listed during the recess unless the Judge deems it fit for urgent hearing.

Opening Hours During the Easter Holiday

The Supreme Court’s last sitting day for the first term is Thursday 28th March, 2024. The Court will officially resume sittings on Monday 8th April, 2024. The Supreme Court Offices in both Grand Turk and Providenciales will continue to operate while the Court is not sitting during the recess.

The Court Office will be closed on the following public holidays:

  • Friday 29th March, 2024 (Good Friday) CLOSED
  • Monday 1st April, 2024 (Easter Monday) CLOSED

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