Kingston, 5 September 2023 – The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, says the ministry will make more than J$6M in direct payments to members of the national team that competed in the recent Netball World Cup in South Africa and their coaches.

The Minister made the announcement on Tuesday (today) as she received members of the team, which claimed the bronze medal at the World Cup, during a courtesy call at her offices in New Kingston.

Minister Grange said the Sunshine Girls “will be receiving — and it’s going straight to your accounts — J$300,000 each; and that’s a token of our appreciation.”

The Minister also announced that members of the Sunshine Girls coaching staff would receive J$200,000 and members of the management team would receive J$100,000 each.

“As good as you are, you need the support team; and I think, girls, you should applaud your support team,” said Minister Grange.

The direct payments to the Sunshine Girls and the management team is in addition to J$20M provided to Netball Jamaica by the Ministry to support Jamaica’s participation in the Netball World Cup.

Minister Grange also announced that the Ministry was organising an event in celebration of the outstanding performance of the Sunshine Girls and other national representatives this year.

“I am pleased to announce that I will be hosting a special congratulatory function to include you, the Sunshine Girls, the Reggae Girls, and the female volleyball team that was successful at the CAZOVA championships. It’s about time, as women, we celebrate our achievement.”

The format and date of the celebration event will be announced at a later date.

END

Kingston, 10 June 2021 (JIS) - The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, says the Government continued to invest in improving the country’s sport infrastructure, even in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

“In spite of the pandemic, we were working. We used the opportunity to do things that did not involve large gatherings and to get the infrastructure up to date during the slow period,” she said, during her contribution to the 2021/22 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representative, on June 8.

Providing an update, Minister Grange informed that the Government is procuring a new pump for the pool at the National Aquatic Centre, which should arrive and be installed by the end of the month. 

“In the meantime, we hired divers to clean the pool, so that our aquatic athletes are still able to use the facility,” she said.

Minister Grange further informed that the running track inside the National Stadium was recently resurfaced at a cost of $60 million. 

“The track manufacturers also created and installed an outdoor basketball court made especially for Jamaica. We will monitor the performance of that surface… to see if it will be a suitable [material] to replace the outdoor netball courts, which are currently far from ideal,” she said. 

In the meantime, the Minister informed that the Government continues to pursue the redevelopment of the National Stadium and the Trelawny Stadium.

Our development proposal, which is currently going through the Public Investment Management system, will see both facilities being transformed over a period of five years into modern stadia with state-of-the-art facilities that will be able to sustain their operations. In fact, the Trelawny Stadium will be at the centre of sports tourism and entertainment,” she said.

Minister Grange further noted that the Government is continuing to invest in facilities at the grassroots level, pointing out that during the last financial year, $117 million was spent through the Sports Development Foundation Jamaica to put in and upgrade sports facilities in 20 schools and communities. 

On another matter, the Minister said “our major challenge and greatest success” during the difficult period was working with the various federations to achieve the safe reopening of the sport sector. 

“The well-designed protocols have served to keep our athletes, coaches and officials safe. The Ministry has also facilitated the vaccination of several of our athletes and coaches as they get ready for local and international competitions,” Minister Grange noted.

She encouraged Jamaicans to continue to observe the protocols, “whether they are vaccinated or not”, and urged athletes who are not yet vaccinated to do so now. 

END

Kingston, 9 August 2019 – The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, says that Jamaica and Kenya have agreed to cooperate in the fields of sports, culture and heritage.

Minister Grange says the agreement was finalised during the recent State Visit of the President of Kenya, His Excellency Uhuru Kenyatta.

Minister Grange signed the Memorandum of Understanding formalising the cooperation agreement with the Kenyan Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Culture and Heritage, Ambassador Amina Mohamed.

Under the MOU, Jamaica and Kenya have agreed to cooperate in the organising of major sporting events in track and field, water sports, football, cycling, cricket, netball, boxing, tennis, golf, martial arts, basketball, rugby and any other discipline that both countries may mutually decide upon.

Minister Grange said:
“Jamaica is the sprint capital of the world and Kenya has a great reputation of producing some of the finest long-distance runners that we have ever known. I believe there is much that we can share not only in track and field, but in other sporting disciplines as well. And so we look forward to exchanges of coaches, administrators and physical education teachers; welcoming Kenyan athletes for training here in Jamaica among other initiatives which will benefit both of our countries.”

Jamaica and Kenya have also agreed to collaborate on sports science, the promotion of sports for people with special needs, and the implementation of anti-doping policies, procedures and practices within the World Anti-Doping Agency system.

Regarding culture and heritage, the areas of cooperation will include collaboration between the National Archives of both countries with a focus on digitisation and modernisation of the entities; cultural exchange in the cultural and creative industries; cooperation between the national museums in the field of heritage research, protection, conservation and management as well as exchange of experts.

Minister Grange said: We would wish to see visits of cultural and creative practitioners including musicians, dancers, actors, theatre groups and visual artists. And so we encourage the participation of our cultural and creative practitioners in festivals in both countries with a view to enhancing the strong cultural links between Jamaica and Kenya.

END

Kingston, March 19 – The Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, has contributed 3.5 million dollars to Netball Jamaica to help send the Sunshine Girls to the 2019 Netball World Cup in Liverpool, England.

The Minister, the Honourable Olivia Grange presented the cheque to Tricia Robinson, 1st Vice President of Netball Jamaica today.

“I am happy to present this cheque of 3.5 million dollars to Netball Jamaica which will be of great assistance as you prepare for the World Cup. Jamaica is fortunate. This is the year of the girls, our Sunshine Girls are going to England in July and our Reggae Girls to France in June. We are looking for great things,“

Minister Grange said.

The Sunshine Girls who are ranked third in the world have qualified for the World Cup every year since 2015.

The Ministry’s contribution to the Sunshine Girls is being provided through the Sports Development Foundation.

Kingston 8 December 2018 – The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment & Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, has congratulated Gaynstead on becoming the national schools netball champions at both the senior and junior levels for the first time in their history.

Gaynstead, the urban champions, defeated the rural schools champions, Denbigh, in both divisions of the ISSA All-Island Netball finals at the Leila Robinson Courts on Friday (June 7).

The junior team scored a close 24-21 win to secure their second All-Island title; and the senior team won 35-26 for their first All-Island title.

Minister Grange said she was “proud of both Gaynstead and Denbigh for a dominant season in schools netball, but I must commend Gaynstead on their history making season that has culminated with them being national champions in both the senior and junior divisions. It shows what our young athletes in all sports can do with continuous support from all quarters. Well done, ladies.”

END

Kingston, December 5, 2018 - The Honourable Olivia Grange, Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport has said, “Denbigh High School in Clarendon in a splendid display made it a “Double Double” in high school netball when they too won both the Junior and Senior Titles.”

Minister Grange, in congratulating Denbigh High after they beat Holmwood Technical High School in both finals said, “It was hardly expected that the same school would win both senior and junior titles in the urban and rural areas as happened. This is historic and should long be treasured.

“Denbigh can also feel pleased that the win in both categories guarantees that they will be one of the two high schools from Jamaica to play in the next regional AFNA Champion of Champions High School Netball Tournament.”

The Sport Minister also congratulated Holmwood Technical for reaching the finals at both levels of the Competition.

Kingston, November 9, 2018 –The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, has announced increased and equal prize money for the winners in this year’s Institute of Sports Primary School Football and Netball Competitions. 

"We have increased your prize money in a significant way,” Minister Grange said at the launch of the competitions today at the National Indoor Sports Centre.

“Last year, in football the champion team received a $150,000; this year the champion will receive $200,000 and to maintain gender equality we have moved the netball prize from $100,000 last year to $200,000 also,” Minister Grange said. 

She said that equalling the prize money fits directly into the work of the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport to promote and reinforce gender equality in society. 

Minister Grange also announced an increase in prizes for runners-up, third and fourth places, parish champions and the most disciplined player. 

According to the Minister, the Institute of Sports, an agency of the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport had to “step up” its prizes due to the increase in participants. The number of schools participating in the football and netball competitions moved from 136 to 390 and 50 to 195 respectively. 

Minister Grange said also that 60 coaches will be certified based on the performance of their team in both the netball and football competitions. This is an increase from last year at which time only 16 football coaches were certified through the CONCACAF D License Coaching Course while no netball coaches were certified in the programme. 

During the training, the coaches will have to attend a Child Care and Protection Seminar which is in keeping with Ministry’s programme for safeguarding children in sports.

END

Kingston, 29 October 2018 – The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, has congratulated the Sunshine Girls who went down by one point to New Zealand in the Fast5 Netball World Series gold medal match in Melbourne, Australia on the weekend.

New Zealand managed to hold off a late surge by the Sunshine Girls to win 34-33.

Minister Grange congratulated the Sunshine Girls for “a very successful tournament in which they demonstrated the strength of Jamaica’s netball and represented our country well.”

Earlier in the tournament, Jamaica defeated New Zealand by a single point (23-22).

It’s the second successive year that the Sunshine Girls are taking home the silver medal from the Fast5 World Series.  They went down to England in last year’s final.

“I know the Sunshine Girls prepared very hard for this tournament and I know they really wanted to take home the gold medal this year.  But we can all be proud that they gave their best and will continue to give their all while representing our country.  We must give them our full support.  I offer congratulations to all the girls as well as the coaching and support teams of Netball Jamaica,” said Minister Grange.

-END-

Kingston, October 22 – The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, says her Ministry is “breathing new life into the government’s grass roots sports development programme.” 

The Minister’s comments were made following the finals of the INSPORTS All-Island Community Football and Netball Competitions at Independence Park Complex on Sunday.

Chedda Empire defeated Content of St Mary, 6-2 in the football competition while L&Y Oracabessa defeated Frazer’s of St Catherine, 32-26 in the netball competition.

“Congrats to all the teams and communities that participated in this year’s competition. Special congratulations to the winners Chedda Empire of St Catherine and L&Y Oracabessa of St Mary. I look forward to next year when we will continue to unearth, expose and develop talent,”

Minister Grange said.

Minister Grange thanked all the communities who participated in the competition and encouraged other Member of Parliaments, Councillors and Community leaders to “come on board” for the next staging, which she said will be bigger and better.

“Our goal is to develop sports from the grass roots to the high performance level, Minister Grange said.

Both winning teams received a prize money of five hundred thousand dollars, while second, third and fourth place teams received $250,000, $100,000 and $50,000 respectively.

Kingston, October 3 – The Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, through the Sport Development Foundation has contributed Two Million Dollars to Netball Jamaica towards the staging of the Sunshine Series which begins at the National Indoor Sports Centre on Sunday, October 7.

Minister Grange made the cheque presentation at a breakfast she hosted for Netball Jamaica and Sponsor representatives today (Wednesday). 

“I regret that because of duties overseas I will miss most of the Series but I do hope to attend one or two of the matches on my return to Jamaica. But I am leaving with Netball Jamaica a nice little gift as I depart – Two Million Dollars - provided by the Sports Development Foundation,” the Sport Minister said.

The Minister said also, “The Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport has underwritten the cost for the entertainment package for the Half Time Shows at all of the matches.”

Minister Grange wished Netball Jamaica a successful Series and thanked the sponsors.

“All of Jamaica is proud of the Sunshine Girls who are showing more and more class by their recent performances and more and more we are convinced that world championship for them is just a few passes away,”

Minister Grange said.

The Series will see the Sunshine Girls playing against the English Roses and Trinidad and Tobago’s Calypso Girls.

Minister Grange left the island today for Paris where she will attend the 205th Session of the UNESCO Executive Board.

-END-