Postal Service gets IT boost
Computers from UK to bolster staff training

“Tremendously grateful!” That was the sentiment expressed by the Acting Postmaster General, Michael Gentles, upon having been recently presented with 104 complete reconditioned computers for the use of the Post and Telecommunications Department (P&T). The computers were donated by the Jamaica2K (UK) in collaboration with its Jamaican counterpart, as well as City College of Birmingham in the United Kingdom.

This gift, presented by Mrs Monica Coke, Governor of City College in Birmingham, UK, was the result of months of research, establishing alliances, painstaking effort and direct interface by the postal service’s Human Resource Director, Ms Melvah Blake. Ms Blake wears ‘two hats’ in this respect, in that she is also the Jamaica2K Coordinator in Jamaica. Mrs Liz Millman, Coordinator of Jamaica2K (UK), supported this mission by making arrangements within the UK for the contribution.

The Jamaica Producers’ Group (JPG) underwrote the transportation costs from the UK to Jamaica and utilised ships that carried JPG exports to the UK. Provisions were made with the Customs Dept for P & T to complete the implementation of this project.

In his brief address, Gentles described the computers as “almost new” and declared that the intended aim of the project will be “right on track as they will be deployed in the Postal Training School at the Central Sorting Office” that was established last year, as well as training centres outside of the Kingston Metropolitan Region. He added that this equipment acquisition will prove to be of immense value to the staff who, as with the growing trend, have been steadily seeking to take advantage of training opportunities for personal and career development.

‘Jamaica2K’ is a charitable organisation registered in the UK that initially envisaged a ‘Millennium Project’ in support of education by providing community learning centres in Jamaica with previously owned computers.

It was established with the aim of preparing Jamaica for the computer era of the new millennium by providing donations of used (but working) computers to select sectors of the society. The computers are collected from organisations that have retooled by upgrading their inventory. City College is one such, and has sought to maintain a three-year inventory turn over to avert obsolescence, thereby providing its stakeholders with contemporary Information Technology equipment and capabilities.

Jamaica2K can be reached locally by contacting Ms Blake at 922-9430-8. The organisation’s primary

Email address is: lizmillman@yahoo.co.uk.

The mailing address is:
Mrs Liz Millman,
63 Linden Lea,
Finchfield,
Wolverhampton,
WV3 8BQ,
United Kingdom.

Governor of City College, Birmingham, Unit Kingdom (UK), Monica Coke (background), pays keen attention to the children of staff members at the postal service headquarters in Kingston, while they are guided by Jamaica2K’s Jamaica coordinator Melvah Blake. Occasion was the recent presentation of computers by Mrs Coke on behalf of City College to the postal service’s day care facility at the Central Sorting Office, to augment the learning activities undertaken by children of staff members that subscribe to the facility.

Monica Coke (right), governor of City College in Birmingham, England, joyfully presents acting Postmaster General, Michael Gentles, with a batch of computers for use in the Postal Training School at the Central Sorting Office recently.