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St. Mary could get by year end its first fully equipped learning centre for persons with special learning needs. Digicel Foundation is investing $27 million in the project.Ground was broken Monday, January 26, for the construction of the Port Maria Learning Centre on the grounds of the Trinity Primary School.According to the partners in the building of the institution, Jamaica Association for Intellectual Disabilities (JAID) and the Digicel Jamaica Foundation the centre will be part of the Foundation’s Centres of Excellence initiative.The Port Maria Learning Centre, once completed, is expected to facilitate the teaching of literacy and numeracy as well as vocational skills to persons with intellectual disabilities, aged 6 – 20 years in the parish of St. Mary.The demand for a learning facility for the intellectually disabled has been high in St. Mary, said Christine Rodriquez, executive director of the JAID. Students from Port Maria and surrounding areas wanting to get services siuch as what will be available from the new centre now have to travel at least 30 kilometres away, to Ocho Rios, to enrol in the nearest institution of its kind.The plan is for the Port Maria Learning Centre, which is expected to be completed in time for the new school year in September 2015, to provide a permanent home that will cater to 36 students and consist of three classrooms, a multi- purpose area, administrative office and other amenities.“We remain committed to enhancing the lives of, and providing opportunities for members of the special needs community in Jamaica,” said. Jean Lowrie-Chin, chairman of the Digicel Foundation.Dr. Morais Guy, minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Transport and Works and Member of Parliament for Central St. Mary stressed that persons need to be more accepting of those who are differently abled Theresa Clarke, whose eight-year-old son Jabari attends a unit of the Edgehill School of Special Education in Port Maria says she felt good with the knowledge that her son would be able to receive proper care at a facility that is close to where she lives.
