Students of the Franklin Town Primary School beamed with pride and joy as they entered their newly painted building on the first day of the 2022/2023 academic year last week, which was completed as part of the final phase of the Embassy of the Dominican Republic’s ‘Dom Rep School Adoption Programme.’

In the red carpet affair, several officials including Ambassador of the Dominican Republic to Jamaica Angie Martínez, along with Education and Youth Minister Fayval Williams; the Member of Parliament for Kingston Central MP Donovan Williams; Dr Kasan Troupe, chief education officer in the Ministry of Education; and the school principal Rohan Treleven, were on hand to welcome new and returning students.

This initiative, which was the brainchild of Ambassador Martínez, saw the diplomatic mission adopting a public school in Jamaica, and developing a yearlong academic curriculum, with its primary focus being the promotion of the Spanish language and the sharing the best of the Dominican culture: its people, customs, history, geography, national symbols, its music-merengue and bachata, its national sport-baseball, the tasting of its gastronomy; as well as improving the school’s infrastructure.

The embassy along with corporate sponsors; Newport – Fersan (Jamaica) Limited, Magna Motors, IMCA Jamaica Limited, Therrestra Limited, Jamaica Producers Group Limited, Bashco/MegaMart, SYGNUS Group and Pepsi Jamaica, undertook the mandate of ensuring that the school campus, its exterior and murals receive a much-needed sprucing up before the new school year began, thus leaving a positive mark on the infrastructure, the staff and students, the community and the life of the school overall.

“For us, it is a matter of social responsibility; an opportunity to leave a mark of love from us as an embassy to the students, and at the same time, an opportunity to share who we are as a country” said Ambassador Martínez. 

“The Dominican Republic and Jamaica are close neighbours and as such, as a way of bringing our countries and cultures closer, we engaged the students, showing them that although there are differences in our history and language, there is a lot that connects us as Caribbean people. It was truly inspiring to see how much they enjoyed dancing to our national rhythms, merengue and bachata; to see how enthusiastically the children from this school took an interest in our language, and our culture on a whole; how much they enjoyed tasting our food and sharing their experiences and learning from ours,” declared Martínez. 

In her remarks, Minister Williams encouraged the students to embrace education “learn as much as you can, show up on time for school.” In the same breath she also thanked Ambassador Martínez and the Embassy, “Thank you for sharing the culture of the Dominican Republic with us here in Jamaica; thank you for your continued sponsorship of the school.”

Ambassador Martínez affirmed that Jamaica has great talent for baseball, the Dominican national sport, “let me tell you this, Jamaicans has a great talent for baseball, and who knows if we continue sharing our national sport, in the future we could have famous baseball player from Jamaica as we have many famous baseball players from the Dominican Republic.”

Then she turned to the ministry and said “Minister, the introduction of baseball in schools in Jamaica is something that the Embassy thinks may be an interesting addition to physical education learning and extracurricular activity, and we can and would be happy to collaborate with the Ministry of Education in this regard. There is definitely a lot to share between our countries and people.”

In response, Minister Williams gave the blessing of the Ministry of Education and Youth to the Franklin Town Primary, “thank you ambassador for challenging us to take on baseball as a sport. The principal has the autonomy to modify the extracurricular activities and take on baseball at the school. The principal has the full endorsement of the ministry to proceed.”  

The Embassy took the wonderful occasion to also unveil a unity mural that was designed by Ambassador Martínez jointly with the members of the team, in an effort to strengthen and deepen, even more, the excellent bonds of friendship that unite our people.

The mural symbolises the integration and friendship of the Jamaican and the Dominican Republic cultures, and the sharing of common values such as peace, unity, respect, justice, kindness, equality and most of all love, which is very known as one of the most recognisable themes of Jamaica: One Love.

The mural was done as a collaborative effort between a Jamaican muralist, who did a number of educational pieces in the repainting of the school, along with two members of the embassy, Daniel Beltré, head of commercial, legal and cultural affairs and intern Judith Villar.  

“On behalf of the board of governor, the staff, students and parents of the Franklin Town Primary School, we would like to say thank you to Ambassador Angie Martínez and the members of the embassy for choosing our school as part of their adoption program and for the huge impact they have had on the school community and infrastructure and look forward to another year of working together for the benefit of our wonderful student. It has been a real honour having the team from the Embassy of the Dominican Republic sharing with us. Their presence has truly made a difference to our students, who look forward to their every visit,” said Rohan Treleven, Principal of the Franklin Primary School.