Kingston, 22 May 2020 – The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, has announced that the cleaning of the statues of the nation’s founding fathers — The Right Excellent Sir Alexander Bustamante and the Right Excellent Norman Manley — at St William Grant Park in Downtown, Kingston will be this year’s National Labour Day Project.

The Prime Minister, the Most Honourable Andrew Holness, will lead a “small and social distanced team, taking all the safety precautions that will work to clean up, fix up and plant around the statues of the two National Heroes on Monday,” said Minister Grange.

The cleaning of the statues, which is quite an involved technical process, has already begun under the management of the Jamaica National Heritage Trust which is mandated to maintain and extend the life of national monuments as part of its conservation programme.

The scope of work for the National Project also includes repairs to the base of the statues, repair of electrical conduits and landscaping.

Minister Grange said the National Labour Day Committee was “careful to select national and parish projects which can be implemented by small teams, without putting anyone’s health at risk, while honouring the aim of the annual Labour Day observance which is to celebrate work and workers and volunteering our labour to make a difference in our communities.”

Labour Day is being observed on Monday, May 25 under the theme, Labour At Home: Clean Up, Fix Up, Plant Up!

Minister Grange is urging Jamaicans to work on their homes as the country prepares for the start of the hurricane season.

Parish projects, to be led by Mayors across the country, include the cleaning of the monument in tribute to National Hero, the Right Excellent Sam Sharpe, in Montego Bay, St James as well as the cleaning and sanitising of the Lucea Market in Hanover and the Junction Market in St Elizabeth.

Clean up and Fix up work will take place at the Mandeville Police Station in Manchester, the St Ann’s Bay Police Station in St Ann, the Savanna-la-Mar Fire Station in Westmoreland and the Indigent House in Martha Brae, Trelawny.

The Municipal Corporations in St Mary and Portland will focus on the infirmaries in their respective parishes.

The Clarendon Municipal Corporation will fix up and plant up the Mitchell Town Park while in St Thomas, the Municipal Corporation will build garbage receptacles in Airy Castle & Leith Hall and construct a bus shed at Prospect.

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