Jamaican university revives local alumni group
Dr. Ivor Harry
(CNS): The Cayman chapter of the alumni association of Northern Caribbean University (NCU), a Seventh-day Adventist tertiary institution, is re-launching Thursday, 18 June, with a view to contributing significantly to the Cayman community. The ceremony will take place at the Cayman Academy at 6:30pm.
Dr. Ivor Harry, education secretary for the Cayman Islands Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, explained why they are bringing back the association. “With the large number of graduates here in the Cayman Islands, we believe that a local alumni chapter can make a significant difference to the social development fabric of the Cayman Islands,” he said.
The university, which celebrated its centenary in 2007, emphasises contributing to a strengthening of the social fabric of Jamaica in a number of collaborative efforts with that country’s government.
“The availability of these resources to the Cayman community is what makes this re-launch so exciting,” Harry said, pointing to one particular programme, “The Empowerment Training Project,” as offering potential for sponsorship by the chapter for use in Cayman.
The project, launched in 2010 by the university’s Community Counselling and Restorative Justice Centre (CCRJ), offers community outreach and works collaboratively with two Jamaican government organisations – the Victim Support Unit and the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences. More than 1,248 participants from over 25 communities and schools have benefitted from the project, he explained.
Harry said this project could be easily adapted for use in Cayman, and its aims include achieving better-educated and well-informed parents, and stronger, more supportive, responsible families; a decline in teenage pregnancies; less abuse and neglect of children and youth; and a stronger sense of self and greater commitment towards self-development, among other important social-development targets.
Through sponsorships of this and other projects available from the university, Harry said the Cayman chapter of the alumni association could offer an avenue for NCU graduates to make a real contribution to the Cayman community.
Membership in the association is open to alumni as well as all friends of the university.
Category: Community
