News Americas Now, NEW YORK, NY, Thursday, February 5, 2015-The Jamaican Diaspora in the United Kingdom (UK) is gearing up to participate in the June 13 to 18 Jamaica Diaspora Conference.
Jamaica’s High Commissioner to the UK, Her Excellency Aloun Ndombet Assamba, told JIS News that members have already submitted their topics to be included on the discussion agenda.
“We have sent out the documentation, which we received from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ask for their input in the agenda that has been set up. We have got some inputs and we have shared them with the organising committee,” she said.
Of particular interest are issues of immigration, health and education, but Mrs. Assamba said that members of the UK Diaspora will be attending all the sessions.
“Of particular interest to us is the symposium, which is being held on immigration and we made a request of the organisers that this should not be a concurrent session with any other session. We are (also) interested in health and education,” she said.
She noted that health and education are the main project areas of most of the groups and organizations in the UK.
The High Commissioner told JIS News that a meeting was held on January 31 to discuss the programme and decide who will be presenters and chairpersons “for the various sessions that we are going to be involved in.”
“We invited representatives, community leaders from all the organisations that are registered with us and individuals that we have been working with on various projects,” she informed.
High Commissioner said that while she does not yet have the final figure in terms of participants, the number is expected to be more than the last biennial conference in 2013.
“At the last (conference) we had about 50. I expect that we should have more, as I have been going around to different communities in the UK…and I have met many persons so far, who have already indicated that they have made their bookings. They were just waiting on the hotel arrangements to be solidified,” she told JIS News.
“So, we expect that our group will be no less than we had last year. Hopefully, it would be more,” she added.
The six-day conference will be held at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St. James.
