ALMOST one year after work on the Malvern Basic School in St Elizabeth started from the proceeds from the One Love Bob Marley Charity football game, organiser of the event Clive ‘Busy’ Campbell and his team are anxiously trying to deliver on their promise after one of the major sponsors pulled the plug.

“Malvern Basic School that we started on Labour Day is making slow progress following the withdrawal of one of the major sponsors of the event,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

“I am bit disappointed because a big prominent institution that said they would be a part of assisting the building… they assisted a little way and are saying now, they can’t go any further,” revealed Campbell.

Campbell did not reveal the institution but was quick to point out that the work to complete the school will go on despite an undetermined shortfall in cash.

“I have made a commitment that once I am around and alive, I will complete it,” said Campbell, who started the charity football festival in 1982, a year after legendary reggae music icon Robert Nesta Marley died. Since then he has been using the event to assist many organisations while honouring outstanding individuals.

“From the Bob Marley One Love game we got some funds and we go down on weekends and with the help of members of the community, no politics, no labourites or PNP, it’s the people of Malvern,” he pointed out.

Campbell, the philanthropist, that he is, is pleading once more to for corporate Jamaica to help his foundation complete the job.

“I am hoping to get the support and continue building because I really would like to see that school completed. Whenever we get funds, we go down on a weekend,” explains Campbell.

“Slabbing the roof is a lot of money. Right now Carib Cement and Tankweld are giving us some assistance with special prices on the cement and steels, but there is so much it entails and it is a mammoth task and I never expect it to be that, but I won’t give up,” added a defiant Campbell.

According to him, the job is between halfway and three quarters completed on what he calls a big community centre. But how much of a shortfall in cash, Campbell could not say.

“At this point, the contractor says he cannot tell me exactly how much is needed to complete the work. The state that we reach now, I know by the next Labour Day, we made a commitment and we would like to complete it,” he noted.

He continued: “I am pleading to institutions, but everybody is saying the economy… so I can only use the events that I plan like Bring Back The Love After Labour football match that played for the first time in 1996 with the likes of Brian Lara inside the National Stadium. That’s my agenda to complete it”.

Campbell is concerned about the state of the crime in Jamaica and he strongly believes that education is the key.

“Just look at the kids within that area, with Munro College just a little distance and Hampton within that same area, and you don’t have a basic school there, so that is giving me the drive to say it must be competed.

“I believe education is what will get Jamaica out of what is happening now. Once I am involved in any event, the basic school must be completed,” said Campbell.