Swift Purcell Boys’ Home gets more assistance
HIGHGATE, St Mary – The Swift Purcell Boys’ Home, nestled in the cool hills of this rural town, continues to be offer hope to the 75 boys living there, despite the many challenges facing the 86-year-old institution housed in a 300-year-old building.
Affiliated to the Quakers through the Friends Education Council, the institution has managed to stay open through monthly subventions from the government and contributions from various local and overseas organisations and business establishments.
The home even has more to be proud about as one of its former residents, Josiah Wilson, has been accepted to study medicine in Cuba, on a scholarship from that country’s government.
At the same time, Couples Ocho Rios has chosen the Highgate-based boys’ home as one of its main charities in St Mary.
Just recently, the hotel brought a team of doctors from Blanc Children’s Hospital in Ohio, United States to the parish and to the home for the second year running.
Along with the medical team was a group from the Fraternal Order of Eagles (FOE), which collaborated with the Issa Trust Foundation to donate US$15,000 to the home to assist with the building of a new dining area.
This new dining area will be able to accommodate 80 boys and 20 staff members and is earmarked for completion in December.
The donation comes on the heels of the completion of a new dormitory, which was sponsored by the FOE and Couples. “Our involvement with Swift Purcell is to ensure that we are able to positively influence the lives and touch the lives of the boys who are in the home,” said Couples’ general manager, Leonard Henry.
Bill Loffer, FOE’s international president, said that his organisation has been assisting boys’ homes in the United States and has been making donations in Europe for the past 30 to 40 years.
“But we have not given any in the Caribbean nor in Jamaica, so we thought this would be a great opportunity to come down and make a little bit of a difference,” Loffer told the Observer.
Donald Stewart, superintendent at Swift Purcell, was grateful for the attention being given to the home and especially for the cash donation. “This sponsorship will assist us with the expansion also with refurbishing of new dorm,” Stewart said.