COVID -19 has forced infirmaries and Golden Age Homes have made significant changes to their operations to protect their residents as they fall in the highly vulnerable group. Visitors are not allowed on these premises to see their loved ones resulting in emotional turmoil for all involved.  This, of course, gets harder in the Christmas season and so the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development headed by Desmond McKenzie partnered with Digicel in an effort to bring families together virtually.

On Wednesday, Digicel donated 40 smartphones to enable residents to make contact with loved ones during the Christmas season.

Speaking at the handover ceremony, McKenzie, said that starting this week, residents will be given phones to interact with their relatives and friends, since they have been unable to do so since March when a ban was placed on visits.

“We will allow the homes to keep the phones and they will be able to use them on a regular basis when the residents desire, because it is not our intention right now to remove the restriction on visits,”

the Minister said.

Public Relations and Communications Manager for Digicel, Elon Parkinson, said that the donation  values more than $500,000.

“This is a pretty significant donation, not only in terms of the monetary value but when you consider how important connectivity is, especially during this time when so many of the persons who are housed in infirmaries still need to reach out to their family members,”

he said.