Minister of Education, Skills, Youth & Information, Senator Dr. the Hon. Dana Morris Dixon, has announced the rollout of a training initiative for youth, aimed at supporting recovery efforts in communities severely impacted by Hurricane Melissa.

The Building Resilience and Inspiring Development through Guided Experience (BRIDGE) initiative will be implemented through the HEART/NSTA Trust in parishes where efforts are under way to repair extensive damage done to buildings during the category-five hurricane in October 2025.

“The BRIDGE programme will equip 200 unemployed young people from St. Elizabeth, Westmoreland, St. James, and Hanover with practical construction skills through guided work experience on active reconstruction sites,” Senator Morris Dixon informed.

She was speaking at the official handover ceremony for the HEART/NSTA Trust’s Region 1 National Development Project at the Jamaica Society for the Blind, in Kingston, on Thursday (January 15).

Dr. Morris Dixon explained that the trainees will receive hands-on instruction in roof repairs, steel fixing, and masonry with support from HEART-certified instructors, and visiting technical experts from countries, including Rwanda, Ghana, Ethiopia, and Guyana.

She noted that while participating in the programme, trainees will receive a stipend of $65,000 per month.

Meanwhile, the Minister urged the HEART/NSTA Trust to ensure that the programme is inclusive and accessible to all Jamaicans.

“As this programme is being implemented, I would like the Trust to give special attention… as much as possible… to members of the disabled community. We need to be able to get them to participate in programmes like this,” Senator Morris Dixon said.

The Minister thanked the HEART/NSTA Trust for developing the programme, while emphasising that, “all of us have to play our part in rebuilding the west”.