Rotary project sees upgrade to computer lab at Mocha Community Centre

See full statement from the Rotary Club of Garden City

On Sunday June 19^th 2022 the Rotary Club of Garden City launched its signature project for the year – “Computers to upgrade the Computer Hub”  at the Mocha Arcadia Community Centre.

Our partnership with the Mocha Arcadia community started just after we launched our club in November 2020 and in our many discussions with the community leaders back then we recognized that they had an important gap in relation to electronic devices for school children. It was in the height of online schooling and at that time the need was for “Tablets” to assist those children who were without devices.

Like every other NGO for such a large project we needed to raise funds and garner corporate support. Due to circumstances beyond our control funding took longer than we expected and we were overtaken with time. The changing COVID 19 dynamics and the move back to in person schooling meant we needed to rethink the Project.

We knew that the community via the NDC had a computer hub already set up so we approached them with the idea of upgrading the computers as we got news from Scotiabank who generously granted us and approved part of funding for the project in the new format. In this way the computers will be accessible to a wider cross-section of the community.

Rotary projects are focused on meeting the needs of the community and sustainability and so in our final discussions with the NDC Chair Mr. Adams and his team we uncovered an even more critical need of addressing the National Grade 6 Assessment.

So, Garden City has undertaken a phase 2 of this project to prepare a batch of these students for their examination. These sessions shall commence during the school holidays this year and extend to their examination date.

The Scotiabank representative – Mr. Colin Gentle attending the proceedings expressed Scotiabank’s pleasure in working with the Rotary Club of Garden City. He reiterated the Bank’s commitment of continuing to support communities and the development of youths – he further stated that the long-term social and economic prosperity in communities depends on future generations as when young people succeed, families, businesses and entire societies are positioned to benefit for years to come.

Potted vegetable seedlings and a child friendly healthy eating handbook titled “Eat Well Move well” were distributed to the children present as well as waste receptacles for the community centre– this is in keeping with the club’s focus of supporting the environment.