PHILIPSBURG:--- The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr school recently received a shipment of 1 x 40ft container of furniture donated by the Miss IQ Foundation in the Netherlands.
Last year the Director Ms. Groenewoud and office General Manager Ms. Qnioun, of the Miss IQ Foundation in the Netherlands, paid a courtesy visit to the honorable Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, drs. Rodolphe Samuel. The Miss IQ Foundation is a non-profit organization in the Netherlands that assists schools, government institutions, and other non-governmental organizations in the Dutch Caribbean with furniture and educational materials donated by schools and large corporations in the Netherlands. In the past after the hurricanes, the Miss IQ Foundation was able to ship 5 containers with materials to the schools and other NGOs on Sin Maarten.
During the visit, the foundation representatives discussed the proposal of a collaboration whereby the Ministry and the school boards could work together to assist schools in receiving furniture and other educational materials donated to the Miss IQ Foundation. The Foundation would be responsible for seeking donations of furniture and other educational materials in the Netherlands and arranging shipment of the furniture in containers and the receiving entity would cover the transportation and shipping costs incurred to ship the container to the Dutch Caribbean.
The proposal entails that the schools would prepare a “wish list” for furniture and other educational materials required, and share the list with the Miss IQ Foundation, who in turn would then approach schools, and the business sector in the Netherlands to assist by donating the requested items. Once the foundation receives positive responses to these requests from donors, Miss IQ Foundation calculates the costs as to the costs to ship these items in a container to the countries of destination which allows the arrangement of payment for the shipping costs. In the case of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. school, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport covered the transportation and shipping costs.
As the Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, I decided to select the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. school as a pilot project for this initiative, as this school, is presently under repairs due to damage sustained during the hurricane in 2017. This school has lost furniture and educational materials over the years resulting from the heavy rain through the damaged roofs.
mlkcontainer12022024The container was shipped in early November 2023 and was scheduled to arrive on December 26th, 2023, however, due to miscommunication on the part of the shipping company in the Netherlands, the container was shipped to Djakarta and remained there for 2 additional weeks. Then it was again reloaded to be shipped to Sint Maarten and arrived here during the 1st week of January 2024.
I also decided for Milton Peters College and Sundial schools to receive 4 x 40ft containers with school furniture as during the courtesy visit with the Miss IQ representative last year, I arranged for them to meet with the management team of Milton Peters College. The management team gladly accepted the proposal from Miss IQ representatives and reacted immediately by submitting a “wish list” to the Ministry with the requested furniture, as well as other educational materials. These containers once ready will be shipped to Sint Maarten early next month to arrive here by the end of February 2024.
This collaborative effort between the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport with the Foundation Miss IQ in the Netherlands, is indeed a remarkable initiative, which will significantly benefit our students, teachers, and the entire educational system.
I hereby take this opportunity to thank the Foundation Miss IQ director and staff for all their effort in assisting the management, staff, and students of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Milton Peters College, and the Sundial schools with the much-needed requested furniture and other educational materials.
