MONTEGO BAY, St James – With a third of its student population lacking in parental support, the Jamaica Christian School for the Deaf in St James got a well-needed donation of food items from the Capital and Credit Merchant Bank this week.

“We have been trying to get business to support us with little success. It’s not a matter of the size or quantity of the gift, it is to know that people out there care for these kids,” said principal of the eight-year-old institution, Sophia Reid.

She said that whether or not parents were able to afford the $5,000 charged each term, no child was turned away from the institution. There are currently 10 students there, she said, whose parents left them and have not returned.

“We have to take special care of them as the school is now their home,” she said.

It is against this background that she has welcomed the donation from Capital & Credit, which has been in Montego Bay for just over a year.

The financial institution donated rice, flour, mackerel, chicken and salt, which will provide meals for the 31 students at the institution.

Bank manager Lance Duhaney told the Observer that he hoped their association with the school would be long term.

“We have looked at a number of projects and this one has touched us. These children are in need for the most part.

They are abandoned and have suffered much abuse. As an institution, we are hoping for a long and lasting relationship with this school,” he said.

The school located in the lush area of Lethe was started by the American Ministries to the deaf twenty years ago.