ST. JAMES, JAMAICA: 36 y-o MoBay businessman, Antonio McKoy helping to improve lives at Barnett Lane...."The needs in the community are great," McKoy has embarked on a mission to educate residents, starting with the children.

BY MARK CUMMINGS Editor-at-Large Western Bureau cummingsm@jamaicaobserver.com  Sunday, November 30, 2014  

MONTEGO BAY, St James — For many years businessman Antonio McKoy had been hearing about the plight of residents living in several inner-city communities in St James.

Nola Williams, a director at Le-Antonio’s Homework and
Development Centre, helps a student from the Barnett
 Lane community with his homework earlier this year.

But he only became aware of the extent of the slew of social and economic ills that beset some of these communities after he relocated the offices of his construction company -- Le-Antonio's Roofing and Construction Ltd -- a few years ago, from the upscale Ironshore area to Barnett Lane, one of several inner-city communities in Montego Bay.

"The needs in the community are great," McKoy told the Jamaica Observer.

"The residents don't have a lot; there are a lot of idle hands, there are a vast number of uneducated persons and there are a lot of kids roaming the streets and not getting the help they need at home."

The savvy 36-year-old businessman has since started to play his part in improving the social and economic conditions of residents in Barnett Lane, as well as the surrounding communities.

MCKOY… the needs in the community
 are great

Cognisant that literacy is an essential skill in today's world, McKoy has embarked on a mission to educate residents, starting with the children.

Earlier this year, the businessman, through his Le-Antonio Foundation, which was established last year, opened a homework centre in a section of his business establishment, which now accommodates 75 registered children between the ages of six and 16 from Barnett Lane and its environs. more