Manchester High School

Manchester High School (MHS), with a student population of 1,300 boys and girls, is nestled in the hills of Mandeville, the capital of Manchester. Mandeville is the 3rd most populous city in Jamaica but it is still known as “country”. It is Beresford Clarke’s, Jamaica YES’ treasurer, alma mater. Working for a technology company, Beresford would see the purchasing of new computers occur every three to four years as the equipment was refreshed.

Beresford contacted Donovan Mayne, the President of the MHS alumni association, and asked if they needed computers at the high school. His answer was a resounding YES! Beresford then contacted Dawn Renwick and asked whether or not EDS, the company she works for, had any computers they were throwing out. Timing is everything. They did. EDS sold (for a nominal amount) 8 CPUs and 12 monitors to Dawn.

Then came the packaging of the computers. Beresford, a man of patience, would check the loading docks at T.I., the company he works for, daily for boxes and packing material being tossed out after new computers arrived. In no time he collected enough.

Next step … shipping. How do you get 8 CPUs and 12 monitors to Jamaica for pennies? Beresford, a man with many contacts, knew someone who worked at Fedex. This was during the time of Ivan the hurricane, when charity abounded at the shipping company. They agreed to ship all the computers, a $5000 cost, for free.

The computers arrived safely in Jamaica and cleared customs – a feat in and of itself. Now, instead of being scrap metal, they are being used in the computer lab by the boys and girls of Manchester High.