Digicel cleans up land in Mesopotamia Valley

03.OCT.08

Shovels, cutlasses, weed whackers and paint brushes were just some of the tools employees of Digicel exchanged their handsets for as part of the company’s Community Involvement Week.{{more}}

On Thursday, September 25th, workers at the telecommunications company took part in the clean up of a piece of land at the entrance of the Mesopotamia Valley, where the Digicel and the Welcome to Mesopotamia billboards stand side by side.

Even Country Manager Sonia Polius did some painting, while Marketing Manager Juno DeRoche wielded a cutlass along with Marketing Executive Edmund Joachim. Corporate Accounts Manager Brenda Barbour picked up a paintbrush and got down and dirty, helping to transform the area around the billboards into a site to behold.

Led by Channel Manager Gershom Dick, who seemed extremely skilled with a cutlass, and Corporate Accounts Representative Joanne Ollivierre, who wielded a weed whacker with skill, other Digicel workers hacked, chopped and dug until the area was clean and waiting for the planting of flowers to enhance it even more. A fence painted white was also erected to enhance the look of the area.

Owner of the piece of land on which the billboards stand, farmer John Cambridge, visited the area while the clean up campaign was going on. The banana farmer described the effort as a very good idea because the group that used to do it stopped. Accepting a new handset from Country Manager Polius, Cambridge also commented: “I always support any kind of clean up”.

Although the turnout from the community was almost non existent, two farmers from the Greggs area who were passing on a truck and saw the efforts stopped to help. Russell Matthews and his nephew Vickron Matthews decided to give a hand because according to Russell: “When I see the project I decided to stop because people treat the environment like the environment depend on them but they don’t know is we depend on the environment”.

Russell also thinks that activities like this one encourage unity in the community and also make the community cleaner and healthier.

According to Human Resources Manager Mercel Williams, who also helped in the clean up exercise, the Digicel Community Involvement Week was held from September 22nd to 26th and was done throughout the islands in which Digicel operates. Other countries did activities ranging from meals on wheels to adopting a home that takes care of elderly persons.