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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>Cricket yes, but Lord Bill Morris can't forget his roots</SPAN>
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>BY KIMONE THOMPSON Observer staff reporter thompsonk@jamaicaobserver.com
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
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<P class=StoryText align=justify>BOMBAY, the rural Manchester district named after the old Indian city (now called Mumbai), is definitely off the beaten track, some might say off the map. But these days, Bombay is getting attention, thanks to a local boy who made good.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=125 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>MORRIS. determined not to forget his roots </SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>Lord Bill Morris, one of the world's most powerful black men and one of the most influential men in Britain, is determined not to forget his roots dug deep in the sleepy farming district 13 miles northeast of Mandeville, the Manchester capital.
As a director of the British Cricket Board, he is attending the ICC Cricket World Cup, but he took time out to touch base with the place of his humble birth.<P class=StoryText align=justify>When in 2002 British Airways donated a sum of 10,000 pounds towards the construction of a sorely needed health centre in Bombay, it was as a result of the initiative of one of Bombay's own.
It was a vastly different Bombay from the one at the time Bill was born 59 years ago. For one, the population had shot up, necessitating a health clinic to handle illnesses that didn't have to be referred to the hospital in the capital.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Then too, hardly anyone could imagine that little Bill would have grown up to become Lord Bill Morris, chancellor to Jamaica's University of Technology and to the University of Staffordshire, England.
Bill Morris, who was last year appointed to the House of Lords in England, has been actively involved in the development of his hometown and the health centre is only one example of his noble contributions to the district and to Jamaica on a whole.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Last Friday, he was back in the district for what might seem a small gesture, but to Bombay a significant one - the presentation of a brand new General Electric open range stove to the health care facility, that he was instrumental in getting the Appliance Traders Limited (ATL)/Sandals group of companies to donate.<P class=StoryText align=justify>He said he felt it was necessary to give something back to the community from whence he came and which had made him into the person he was today.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"When I came here in November last year, they told me they didn't have a stove and so I pledged personally to fund the stove because I think it's important that the centre be looked after as a community resource," he told the Observer after the brief handing over ceremony.
However, Lord Morris noted that when he mentioned his intentions to someone at ATL, the company decided to take on the project as part of its social responsibility.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"We felt it was more than a worthy cause," Sandals Group director for corporate communications, Rachel McLarty, said, noting the efforts of Lord Morris in the construction of the health centre.
The gift has made the task of sterilising medical equipment much easier for the health professionals in the district who, for the past two years, either had to travel three miles to the Bellefield Health Centre or six miles to the Percy Junor Hospital in Spalding on the border of Manchester and Clarendon to get the job done.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Twenty-seven-year health care veteran and midwife in charge of the centre, Joyc
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>BY KIMONE THOMPSON Observer staff reporter thompsonk@jamaicaobserver.com
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P class=StoryText align=justify>BOMBAY, the rural Manchester district named after the old Indian city (now called Mumbai), is definitely off the beaten track, some might say off the map. But these days, Bombay is getting attention, thanks to a local boy who made good.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=125 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>MORRIS. determined not to forget his roots </SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>Lord Bill Morris, one of the world's most powerful black men and one of the most influential men in Britain, is determined not to forget his roots dug deep in the sleepy farming district 13 miles northeast of Mandeville, the Manchester capital.As a director of the British Cricket Board, he is attending the ICC Cricket World Cup, but he took time out to touch base with the place of his humble birth.<P class=StoryText align=justify>When in 2002 British Airways donated a sum of 10,000 pounds towards the construction of a sorely needed health centre in Bombay, it was as a result of the initiative of one of Bombay's own.
It was a vastly different Bombay from the one at the time Bill was born 59 years ago. For one, the population had shot up, necessitating a health clinic to handle illnesses that didn't have to be referred to the hospital in the capital.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Then too, hardly anyone could imagine that little Bill would have grown up to become Lord Bill Morris, chancellor to Jamaica's University of Technology and to the University of Staffordshire, England.
Bill Morris, who was last year appointed to the House of Lords in England, has been actively involved in the development of his hometown and the health centre is only one example of his noble contributions to the district and to Jamaica on a whole.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Last Friday, he was back in the district for what might seem a small gesture, but to Bombay a significant one - the presentation of a brand new General Electric open range stove to the health care facility, that he was instrumental in getting the Appliance Traders Limited (ATL)/Sandals group of companies to donate.<P class=StoryText align=justify>He said he felt it was necessary to give something back to the community from whence he came and which had made him into the person he was today.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"When I came here in November last year, they told me they didn't have a stove and so I pledged personally to fund the stove because I think it's important that the centre be looked after as a community resource," he told the Observer after the brief handing over ceremony.
However, Lord Morris noted that when he mentioned his intentions to someone at ATL, the company decided to take on the project as part of its social responsibility.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"We felt it was more than a worthy cause," Sandals Group director for corporate communications, Rachel McLarty, said, noting the efforts of Lord Morris in the construction of the health centre.
The gift has made the task of sterilising medical equipment much easier for the health professionals in the district who, for the past two years, either had to travel three miles to the Bellefield Health Centre or six miles to the Percy Junor Hospital in Spalding on the border of Manchester and Clarendon to get the job done.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Twenty-seven-year health care veteran and midwife in charge of the centre, Joyc
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