The Rotaract Club of New Kingston, one of the 18 youth arms of the Rotary Club in Jamaica, continues to work diligently to make a difference in its community despite the present financial downturn.

The club celebrates its five-year anniversary this year and has undertaken a number of tasks since its inception.

Julie Ramchandani, president of the club, said the tasks include a number of past and ongoing projects such as the painting of the Sandhurst Basic School, clothes drives for victims of Hurricane Ivan and regular projects at the Glenhope Place of Safety.

"Our three main ongoing projects include the Swallowfield Homework Centre, JAMAL now the Jamaican Foundation for Lifelong Learning and the Homestead Place of Safety for Girls," she informed.

The club visits Swallowfield every Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon, where they provide assistance to some 55 young people from the community.

"We help them with their homework, we provide career counselling and we've also got reading specialists to help them, as some of them cannot read or write," she said.

"Rotaract, in particular, con-centrates on the Grade Six Achievement Test so we work with them and help them to strengthen the areas where they are weakest," Ramchandani added.

Eager to learn

She said the group also teaches at the Jamaican Foundation for Lifelong Learning every Monday evening.

"The students are eager to learn as several of them have dropped out of high school for lack of financial resources, or have had family obligations that never allowed them to complete their high school education," she said.

The group also brings much joy and entertainment to the girls at the Homestead Place of Safety where they make quarterly visits.

Ramchandani said Rotaract is always in need of new members.

The Rotaract Club can be contacted at newkingstonrotaract @hotmail.com.