BY FABIAN BELGRAVE | SEP 13, 2022
Minister of Youth, Sports, and Community Empowerment, Charles Griffith, poses for a photograph with the first cohort of the “Sewing for Success” programme. From left to right is Dionne Boyce, Natalia Brewster and Rieah Holder. (GP)
Minister of Youth, Sports, and Community Empowerment, Charles Griffith, this weekend presented the first cohort of the “Sewing for Success” programme with their certificates of completion for their course of study.
The presentation ceremony was held at the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology (SJPI), Wildey, St. Michael.
The five students, who completed the one-year programme, were Tiana Harewood, Donna Crichlow, Natalia Brewster, Rieah Holder and Dionne Boyce.
They learnt how to sew, design patterns and construct school uniforms for girls. The programme was facilitated by the Ministry and the SJPI.
The certificate course, the first of its kind by the Ministry, was deemed a success. “I want to congratulate you on the success and to say to you that the Ministry will do everything that is necessary to help you succeed in this particular project,” Minister Griffith noted.
He added: “The Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme is our sister programme and it is a programme that prepares you for exactly what you’ll be doing, working for yourself. It walks you through the process, in terms of business and how you should function at that level.”
The “Sewing for Success” programme was an idea the Minister shared with Youth Commissioner, Shane Haynes, who planned and implemented the project in 2021.
Mr. Haynes explained it consisted of 80 hours of training and started with 22 registered participants.
Natalia Brewster, who gained her certification, recounted that it was “fate” which allowed her to find out about the course. “I heard about it through a lady that lives in the neighborhood and I actually had purchased a machine, but I only knew the basics from school. When she told me that she was going to the Gall Hill Community Centre to do the programme, I was like: ‘That’s interesting it will be a good thing for me to join’. So I asked how much it was. She said it was free,” Ms. Brewster stated.
The five participants, who completed the programme, were happy to receive the certificates. They are now ready to start phase two of the programme which is constructing uniforms for boys.
Minister Griffith also added to their excitement by announcing that he was in the final stages of procuring a central space from which they could work, equipped with sewing machines and tables, in the old Gall Hill Library.
