Sophia Grant tucking into lobster (ACEION CUNNINGHAM)

The return of the Rainforest Seafood Festival was clearly a welcomed addition to this year’s foodie calendar as hundreds of patrons turned out ahead of the 11:00 am start yesterday at the Catherine Hall Entertainment Centre.

Patrons were treated to tasty offerings from several food purveyors serving up lobster, conch, fish done in several ways, shrimp and several seafood mixes. Jerk fish from Little Ochie was a standout.

It was clearly a day for family fun and food and several family members could be seen bonding over meals under the huge tents.

The Rainforest Seafood Festival is staged in order to raise much-needed funds for the Cornwall Regional Hospital. All proceeds from the event go to the We Care Foundation dedicated solely to raising funds for the hospital.

Here are highlights from the event.

Lobster was a crowd favourite based on the reasonable prices. (Aceion Cunningham)

Fried fish from Little Ochie’s food stall. (Aceion Cunningham)

Lobster from Sweet Spice (Aceion Cunningham)

Fried fish being prepared at Little Ochie’s food stall. (Aceion Cunningham)

Kedian Nelson enjoys shrimp from the Middle Quarters group. (Aceion Cunningham)

Source: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/lifestyle/Succulent-Seafood-Eats_91125

Jamaica Carnival blazed the streets from Hope Gardens to Emancipation Park with a high-energy, trial-route road march on Sunday.

Selected carnival junkies were invited to partake in a fun-filled day as bystanders were given a taste of what to expect on April 23.

Patrons were in high spirits as they chipped down Hope Road, music filled the air, and bystanders joined in the excitement along the way. The Wray & Nephew music truck as well an added infusion of revelry by DJ Kurt Riley set the tone for a great day. The true meaning of carnival was felt — togetherness and unity — ‘Out of Many, One Carnival’, the theme of the new revolutionised Jamaica Carnival.

“The good original carnival is what we want to bring to Jamaica — no gimmicks, just real authentic carnival that we all can enjoy. With J Wray and Nephew now as our title sponsor, the sky is the limit. We can now bring the type of carnival that I’m sure a lot of original carnival goers have been missing. We ready for the road, so don’t count us out!” said Julianne Lee, managing director of Jamaica Carnival.

Source: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/Jamaica-Carnival-takes-to-the-streets_90990

Below are highlights from the event.

Pietro Gramegna, marketing manager, Campari, was a part of the excitement.

Revellers enjoyed being back pon di road.

Dr Kayan Smith enjoying the music

Deaf Can Coffee brewed success at the SEBI Pitch for Purpose Competition last Friday evening, winning a business development award valued at $1 million. The award is earmarked to be used towards the upgrading of the Deaf Can mobile cafe. Here, Deaf Can Coffee officials Fabian Jackson (second left), assistant manager; Andrine Smith (centre), barista; and Carlisle Gabbinon (second right), manager, display the symbolic cheque and trophy with Saffrey Brown, general manager, JN Foundation; and Dane Richardson, CEO, Digicel Foundation.

Source: Jamaica Observer

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Feb. 22, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Digicel today announced its Digicel 2030 global transformation programme promising customers a completely new communications and entertainment experience made possible by a more agile, customer-centric application of resources and investment. 

Digicel also announced that it has signed a global partnership agreement with ZTE – a leading global provider of integrated telecommunication solutions – for an ongoing multi-year network upgrade programme.

These initiatives occur as telecoms providers across the globe move to benefit from significant technology advances and manage changing customer needs in terms of data usage and competitive threats from unregulated OTT operators.

Digicel becomes one of the first communications and entertainment providers in the world to initiate a wide scale transformation agenda. The core elements of the Digicel 2030 transformation see it undertaking a complete re-design of its organisational structure; putting customers in control and making a commitment to deliver a superior superfast network experience.

Organisational design
Digicel is designing and integrating its organisation to be fit for purpose for 2030 and beyond. The future organisational structure will comprise a small number of regional hubs (two for the Caribbean andCentral America regions and two for the Pacific region) housing back office centralised functions and delivering shared services allowing staff in Digicel’s 31 markets to focus on sales and enhanced service delivery – and ensuring that resources and investment are prioritised to drive competition and innovation.

This will result in an approximate 25% reduction of the global workforce over the next 18 months with the first step in the process being the offer of an Enhanced Voluntary Separation Programme opening on 1^stMarch 2017.

Enhanced customer experience
Over the last three years, Digicel has invested over US$1.65 billion in upgrading its networks and platforms and in rolling out fibre to the home and mobile broadband connectivity. Of particular note is the success of its fibre to the home offering with Digicel racking up 120,000 customers to date – well ahead of its business plan.

Coupled with a “digital first” approach, this means customers can enjoy an enhanced entertainment, content and business solutions experience with an array of advanced new products and services and a refreshed retail experience putting customers in the driving seat with Digicel delivering their total communications needs.

Network experience
With a hallmark of providing customers with the best network, Digicel is now taking things to the next level and initiating an ongoing data network upgrade programme. To this end, a global partnership agreement was signed on 9^th February in Shenzhen, China, by Digicel Chairman, Denis O’Brien and Dr. Zhao, Chairman and CEO of ZTE. With rollout commencing in the coming months, this is the largest network transformation ever undertaken by Digicel and customers will very soon start to see the benefits.

Commenting on the programme, Digicel Group CEO, Colm Delves, explains; “We are building Digicel for 2030 and beyond. Our transformation programme sees us taking the bull by the horns and daring to be different by challenging the status quo and by innovation-led growth. That’s what we are known for and that’s what we will continue to be known for into the future.”

He continues; “Over the years, we have built a great company with a proud legacy of democratising communications and making an impactful contribution to countries and people across the globe. That’s something we all take great pride in. Now we’re on a mission to build Digicel for the future with our sights set on delivering a superior superfast network experience and putting our customers in control.”

About Digicel
Digicel Group is a leading global communications provider with operations in 31 markets in the Caribbean, Central America and South Pacific. After 15 years of operation, total investment to date stands at over US$5 billion worldwide. The company is renowned for delivering best value, best service and best network.

Digicel also runs a host of community-based initiatives across its markets and has set up Digicel Foundations in Haiti, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea and Trinidad and Tobago which focus on educational, cultural and social development programmes.

Contact:
Antonia Graham
Head of Group Public Relations
T: +1876 564 1708
E : antonia.graham@digicelgroup.com

SOURCE Digicel

http://www.military-technologies.net/2017/02/22/digicel-2030-global-transformation-programme-begins/

On Friday, February 24, which was celebrated as Jamaica Day, a team from Rainforest Seafoods visited Iris Gelly Primary School located in Kingston, where they treated over 180 students with seafood products sold by the company. The visit also incorporated the launch of their feeding initiative for students who will sit the Grade Six Achievement Test next month.

For more than 15 years, Chris Davitt and Craig Ruppert, along with their families and friends from the United States, have changed the lives of more than 160 families in Jamaica and Haiti in partnership with Food For The Poor (FFP) Jamaica.

Davitt and Ruppert have travelled to Jamaica each year since 2001 with a team of volunteers to construct several houses for people who need a safe and secure place to live.

This year, a group of 50 volunteers and staff members of FFP Jamaica built 16 houses, one chicken coop and a pig pen in the Clarendon communities of Race Course, Hayes Field and Banks.

Transformative Gift

Midge McDonald, who received one of the 16 houses, said the gift would be transformative because of the challenges she faced at the old home she shared with her brother.

“The floor is made of board and it was very shaky and there were holes all over. The roof was also in a poor state because when it rain it leaked badly,” said McDonald.

“I’ve fallen through the floor before and had to go to the hospital for treatment, and so we were in desperate need of a house,” continued McDonald, who received the keys to her house during a recent ceremony.

Tackee Anderson, who was also living in a dilapidated house, expressed happiness at getting a new one.

“My cousin and I were always worried that the one-room structure we were living in with our two children would one day fall down on us. We are really grateful and we give thanks to our donors for making our lives better,” said Anderson.

Speaking at the handover ceremony at the Race Course Primary School, Ruppert promised that his team would return to Jamaica next year to construct housing solutions for more needy families.

“We really want to thank all the beneficiaries and their families for welcoming us to your homes and community in such a special way. We enjoy what we do in coming down every year to build houses for needy families in Jamaica, and the smiles, happiness and gratitude you have shared with the team over the years convince us that you are appreciative of us and what we are doing in your community,” said Ruppert.

A breakthrough for more than 300,000 students at the pre-primary and primary levels now gives them the ability to access interactive digital versions of approved Ministry of Education, Youth & Information reading resources.

The materials, hosted on the Bookfusion mobile app and website, are now enabled with music, narration and highlighted text delivered by Jamaican voices.

Already available are the 19 books in the Literacy 1-2-3 series. The development of an additional 30 books in the Doctor Bird Reading Series and Early Childhood Charts are a few weeks away from readiness.

Digicel Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have partnered with the education ministry and Bookfusion to revolutionise teaching and learning throughout the education sector.

Readers will have a more user-friendly way to utilise e-books which can be accessed on all mobile devices and computers.

“The added investment of interactivity creates mechanisms to improve the efficacy of the teaching and learning experience in and out of the classroom for thousands of students and their teachers islandwide,” said Dane Richardson, Digicel Foundation CEO.

“We are particularly excited about this added value because it directly empowers students as independent learners while simultaneously creating opportunities for well-needed parental support,” added Richardson.

Project RESULTS

Data from the project show that some students leaving early childhood institutions and entering primary schools are not at the requisite level of proficiency in basic literacy.

Almost 10,000 of 43,000 students enrolled in the 104 participating schools had to be targeted with remedial intervention in reading. Insufficient learning resources and limited involvement of parents and guardians were among the issues identified as the consistent challenges for these children.

However, with appropriate interventions, the targeted students and schools showed significant advancements in skills

Source: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20170219/its-easy-literacy-1-2-3-students-given-chance-learn-read-anytime-anywhere

This Lenten season will be the tastiest of them all as Rainforest Seafoods aims to entice the palate of food lovers everywhere with their annual signature seafood festival that kicks off on Ash Wednesday, March 1.

‘Captain’ Rainforest Seafoods set sail on the sandy shores of Barbican Beach for the launch last Wednesday night, and were joined by a crew comprising media personnel, who went along for the palatable ride.

The festival, set to dive into all things seafood in the Second City of Montego Bay, took a one-year hiatus but is back, and the organisers are promising it will be better than ever! So, this coming Ash Wednesday, all roads lead to Catherine Hall Entertainment Centre for 12 hours of food and fun.

Food got a taste of Rainforest Seafoods Festival, and my, do we have a treat for you! Here are a few of the exciting dishes.

krysta.anderson@gleanerjm.com

Source: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/food/20170223/rainforest-seafoods-festival-seafood-paradise