Digicel: Committed to help people

The Digicel Foundation (DF) has planned to invest $1.3 million for 39 projects in communities throughout the country which will impact the lives of more than 20,000 people.

At the launch of the DF Extraordinary Project Impacting Communities (EPIC) programme, DF CEO Penny Gomez said their mandate is to focus on community development and advancement of people with special needs.

She said the DF will partner with agencies to provide funding for developmental projects and to become directly involved in the execution of each project.

“The programme is about robust community engagement and the extraordinary projects which impact communities. It also encourages the private sector partnerships. We work with MPs, councillors, and regional corporations, WASA, Cepep among others.

“The EPIC brand came about because we recognised there was a downturn in the economy and funding shrunk for community based organisations. The funds had dried up. We felt that small groups were suffering and we felt that an intervention was needed. This is where EPIC was born. We will be giving US$5,000 grants to do indoor/outdoor projects.”

Gomez said in order for citizens to be selected, their community based organisation must be registered, and must complete their project in six to eight weeks.

She said from statistics in 2016, there was a demand for a lot of play parks in communities, followed by computer labs.

“People have realised they want to spend more time with family and friends, and saw the need to have play parks within their communities.”

She said EPIC aims to deliver a series of small scale community-based projects that have the potential to enhance indoor and outdoor spaces and contribute toward the development of every community throughout TT.

Twenty-five community based organisation received cheques amounted to $33,750 to complete their projects.