Press Release:
Contact:Hands Across Jamaica For Righteousness: [email protected]
Monday, June 20th, 2005 – In a show of unity, thousands of students, accompanied by their teachers joined hands to sing ‘Let’s Join Hands Across Jamaica For Righteousness’, as they gave a rousing welcome and signal of anticipation of the School Motivation Programme 2005 – 2006, at three launch events from June 15th to 17th.
The programme is part two of the ‘Jamaica, Land of Destiny’ campaign featuring the music video ‘Let’s Join Hands’ and radio messages, and is designed to make plain the value, vision and principles of the Motto, Anthem and Pledge (MAP) to students, and to empower them to run with that message to their schools and communities. Over 150 schools have so far registered to participate in the project, with registration forms still being submitted.
The four-leg programme, to be rolled out starting September 2005 under the theme ‘The Passing of the Baton’, was launched in Montego Bay, Mandeville and Kingston on June 15th, 16th and 17th respectively. Guest speakers, Dr. Randolph Watson, a former teachers college president; Dr. Trevor Hamilton, international management consultant; and Sheree Martin, Assistant General Manager with National Commercial Bank shared with students from their lives and gave advice for the future.
According to HANDS Chairman, Mr. Earl Richards, “all activities in the programme have been designed to pass the baton, so to speak, to our young people of today, to equip them with the values and perspectives on nationhood that they need to take Jamaica into the millennia to come.”
He said the nation must make plain the value and beauty of Jamaica’s heritage to the young generations, so that they can run with the message. “It must not be lost. It must be alive in the hearts and minds of all generations of Jamaicans to come,” the HANDS Chairman said.
Executive Director of HANDS, Mr. G. George Watson, in explaining the phases of the programme said the SMP was being presented to young people as legs in a relay race. He said in the first leg, starting September, HANDS will kick off‘Generation 2 Generation’ – a motivational speaker programme that will deploy role models into schools to speak about how they applied some of the principles of the MAP to their lives and overcame great odds. He called the second leg ‘M.A.P. Quest’ – a phase in which students, guided by their teachers will be asked to examine the M.A.P and interpret what they have learnt into posters, brochures, paintings, drama, songs and dances in order to stage school exhibitions focused on the M.A.P. According to Mr. Watson, “students will be expected to teach us what they have learnt from it. What is the vision for the nation? Who is the God of the MAP and how does he reveal Himself to Jamaica? What is their role? What are the values we can apply to our lives?”
The Exhibitions will be judged for the parish and national winner with wonderful prizes in the works, the Executive Director said. Mr. Watson said leg three presents the ‘M.A.P. Leaders Training’ programme to formally train students to understand the message of the M.A.P., to learn how to make it clear to others and to learn how to run with it to their communities and fellow students. He said in the fourth leg students will be officially commissioned and given badges of office in a segment called ‘The Passing of the baton’. “We send
them into the field as Ambassadors to pass the message they have learnt, to other young people.”
Visually, SMP 2005 – 2006 is a take off of a transformation scene in the ‘Let’s Join Hands’ video that features a boy running with a knife, about to murder his victim. All of a sudden, the boy is transformed into a boy receiving and running with a baton passed on to him. Out of the ugly of crime and social decay, he emerges avictor, running with a message of hope for his people.
