Jamaica: Post office staff and pensioners get World Postal Day Treat

October 22, 2014 | Kingston, Jamaica | Nigel Coke/IAD

Glenville Carr (right), pastor of the Washington Gardens Seventh-day Adventists Church presents a gift basket to 91 years old Ms. Violett Chance for being the oldest pensioner on spot, during the Western District Post Office Pensioners Health Fair held in Kingston, Jamaica, Oct. 20, 2014. Images by Nigel Coke

Approximately two hundred pensioners from the Washington Gardens and adjoining communities in Kingston, Jamaica, along with the staff of the Western District Post Office in Kingston were feted during a pensioner’s health fair held earlier this month during World Postal Day.

The fair, which is in its second year, was organized by the health and community service departments of the Washington Gardens Seventh-day Adventist Church. It started one day last year out of a visit to the post office by retired superintendent of Police Ionie Ramsey Nelson to collect her pension check.

“I saw a long line stretching out into the road with even disabled persons in it,” exclaimed Ramsey- Nelson, a member of the Adventist Church in Washington Gardens.

“I went and inquired why it was like this and asked if there was some numbering system, so pensioners would not have to be in such a long line.”

She went back to her church and reported it and they decide to assist the post office, which sees more than 600 pensioners monthly, on a phase basis.

Postmaster Mrs. Sophia Simpson-Wickman (left) listens to Mr. Ian Forbes, Managing Director of Sherwin Williams W.I. Ltd. during the presentation of paints by his company to the post office the health fair.

Last year, the church purchased chairs for pensioners, three standing fans, water stations and a numbering system for the post office so the pensioners could be more comfortable, added Ramsey-Nelson. “Next year we will seek to put in two roof fans and give special help to persons with special needs.”

The pensioners were treated to free health check-ups, food gift baskets, toiletries, refreshments, counseling and health presentations. The staff of the post office was also dined during at the end of the day.

In recognition of its work and importance to pensioners who collect their monthly pension checks from post offices island-wide, paint giant Sherwin Williams donated forty gallons of paint for the post office.

“It’s a great pleasure on behalf of my organization to present these paints to help beautify this complex,” said Ian Forbes, managing director of Sherwin Williams (W.I) Ltd. “I think it has been long overdue and we are pretty certain that it will make a difference in transforming the whole atmosphere at this facility. I commend the Washington Gardens Adventists Church for this initiative and recognizing pensioners on World Postal Day, which I am sure will go a far way in enhancing the lives of some of our pensioners who, a number of them are unsung heroes”