UNDP to deliver ongoing support for children with special needs and disabilities through partnership with Genesis Academy

UNDP donates supplies and receives listing in Academy's Love Sponsors roll call

January 16, 2025
UNDP Resident Representative hands over supplies to Genesis Academy

Kishan Khoday, UNDEP Resident Representative for The Bahamas, Bermuda, Belize, Cayman Islands, Jamaica and Turks and Caicos Islands, hands over a few items from UNDP's sizeable donation of art and craft and office supplies to Genesis Academy Principal, Stacey Ann Newman and Vice Principal UNDP Resident Trecia Casselle. The handing over took place at the school on 15 January.

UNDP MCO in Jamaica

The Genesis Academy for children with disabilities has received a donation of art and craft and office supplies from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Multi Country Office (MCO) in Jamaica, as a signal of UNDP’s commitment to the resilience and inclusion of the school’s special needs students.

UNDP, which only recently adopted Genesis Academy, has been leading staff and partners on engagements with teachers and students, and establishing lines of communication to support the pressing needs of the school since last year.

Yesterday’s handing over marks UNDP’s first donation under the current partnership, and featured UNDP’s ceremonial addition to the school’s list of Love Sponsors who donate in excess of 500 000 dollars.

 

The donation responds to special requests from teachers for supplies to create and enhance learning tools for their students and to strengthen operational efficiencies at the school. 

UNDP Resident Representative Kishan Khoday expressed pride in the Genesis Academy partnership and lauded the school as an amazing institution that provides life changing learning and life skills to children with disabilities through to 21 years of age. “Today as we mark the new year 2025 with UNDP’s donation of various equipment and tools to the Academy, we join corporate citizens who have been supporting the needs of children with disabilities over the years and call for more strategic partnerships that will bolster the supply of learning tools and supplies to this vulnerable group. He paid tribute to the teaching and administrative staff for their patience and dedication and stated that UNDP would remain responsive to their requests.

Genesis Principal, Stacey-Ann Newman said “we are so happy for the contribution from UNDP. We need these resources for our teachers and administrative office. Everything we asked for; we got and we’re so grateful. She noted that classes would now be assigned printers to support the production of critical learning aids, thereby alleviating the strain on resources assigned to the administrative offices. 

The UNDP Multi-Country Office in Jamaica currently implements a wide range of development interventions targeting marginalized and vulnerable populations including youth and persons with disabilities under the Social Resilience and Inclusion portfolio of its 2022 to 2026 Country Programme. UNDP’s other thematic priorities are: Citizen Safety and Security and Rule of Law; Climate Change Resilience; and Sustainable Natural Resource Management.