The Basil Charles Educational Foundation has announced the recipient of scholarships and bursaries for the 2016-2017 school year.
Full scholarships have been awarded to Jurdin John of Layou,
Devere Reron Kyle James of New Prospect, Marika Baptiste of Fancy, Kadeem Nathan Burton of Long Wall, Kingstown, and Mc Coy Lennox McFee of Evesham.
Bursaries were given to Joshua Richardson of Barrouallie, Degroy Harry of Sans Souci, and Kaicy Ollivierre of Bequia.
The Basil Charles Educational Foundation has helped 136 students through its full-time scholarship programme and 78 through bursary, bringing to 213 the number of students who have been through the programme.
Currently, there are 18 secondary students at three at the Community College who are receiving assistance under the programme.
In 2010, the foundation we started its Early childhood programme, in collaboration with the Ministries of Mobiliaation and Education. In this programme, the foundation helps 14 preschools in St. Vincent where 450 children are registered. Some 420 cots were also purchased for these schools. The programme consists of nutritional support, training of teachers and parents and minor repairs to schools.
The BCEF was founded in 1995 as Basil Charles was building his world famous Blues Festival. Proceeds from the Blues Festival, along with the sale of CDs and private and corporate donations all help to fund this foundation. Many of its recipients from the BCEF have gone on to live successful lives. The first recipient, Rasbert Humphrey now works for the Caribbean Development Bank and has a master’s degree in finance.
This is a great story! The Foundation’s recognition of the importance of early childhood education puts it over the top for me. It’s true that every charity or benefit can or will never cover everything but the almost exclusive focus on secondary by the architects and gurus of education in SVG really stands out. Congratulations and thanks to Basil Charles and to the Basil Charles Educational Foundation!