NEM Insurance contributed more than $350,000 in support of the Jamaica Partnership for Education (JPE) project since it joined the initiative to support schools in December, 2010.

Its partnership with the JNBS Foundation in the JPE project has seen customers of NEM making donations towards the goal of eradicating illiteracy in Jamaican schools by 2015, with the company matching the funds raised from customers. The primary aim of the JPE is to give back to schools, especially those in rural areas that are faced with a lack of educational resources.

“This comes at a time when we need to expand our capabilities,” Parry Town Primary School Principal Delton Walker said earlier this year, after his institution was presented with a new projector and computer. Mr. Walker stated that the equipment would be very useful for the Ocho Rios School, particularly when dealing withlarge classes.

Apart from providing equipment, the company has also participated in the JPE Bookworm Bites Reading Series with staff volunteers along with those from the JNBS Foundation,reading to students at Parry Town Primary School; Osborne Store Primary School in Clarendon and most recently, atGlendevon Primary School in Montego Bay.

And over the summer, NEM launched the Bookworm Bites Summer Read Competition to encourage students to read over the holidays. Entrants in the competition were asked to read three books of their choice and submit a short book report.

“I feel very good,” said winner Monique Bedward, 8, and a student of Jessie Ripoll Primary School when she received her prize in September. The voracious reader, who plans to be a paediatrician, said “I never expected this.”

Other grand prize winners in the competition were Kirk Bailey, a grade one student of Alpha Primary School andKadeem Bailey a grade five student of Braeton Primary School.They each won school supplies and gift vouchers from Sangster’s Book Store worth $10,000.

General Manger Mr. Chris Hind thanked members of NEM’s Customer Service team, and employees at the King Street Branch in particular, for their sterling support. “They are the ones who explain the aims and objectives of the project to customers,” Mr. Hind stated. At a staff function in November,he pledged that NEM will continue to support the JPE initiative in 2012.