The Pride clean up – a way of getting roadside and public areas ship-shape while putting some Christmas money in more than 700 people’s pockets – has been going on all over the Cayman Islands for the past two weeks.

The government-run project, which will end this Friday, pays unemployed people CI$70 a day.

Workers on the project make roadsides look beautiful by picking up the trash, mowing grass, and cutting down weeds with trimmers.
George Town MLA Ellio Solomon, who has been put in charge of the project said: “The primary objective is to make sure work is carried out in terms of keeping the place clean, while providing a little employment for people who don’t have any, and give them a chance to make an honest living, put some food on the table and buy some gifts for Christmas,” The Pride cleanup has been going at various times, ever since the present government came to power, Mr. Solomon added.

Sometimes the benefits can go far beyond providing employment for one or two weeks coming up to Christmas, according to Mr Solomon:  “A lot of people who come out get in contact with employers who like the way they work, and quite often people get hired as a result of it,” he said.
Mr Solomon said he also knew of at least two occasions when people on the project were inspired to start their own landscaping business, too.
I know of two persons in the clean up who started their own landscaping.

At Savannah/Newlands, Team F, one of six teams in the Bodden Town District, were hard at work around the entrance to the Newlands housing estates.

Team leader, John Nixon said: “Each one has a different area and there are six different areas (in Bodden Town district) being done at the same time. “There are 23 people on my team, and around 140 altogether working in Bodden Town,” Mr. Nixon said.