The Child Development Agency (CDA) and the Caribbean Broilers Group (CB) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) joining forces to promote child protection, good parenting, and community involvement as necessary steps in protecting the nation's children.

Speaking at the signing ceremony at the CB Group's head office, Michelle McIntosh, chair of the CDA 10th Anniversary Planning Committee, said the agency was happy to be partnering with CB as "the task of safeguarding our children from the many ills of society requires the collective effort of every individual and sector in Jamaica".

"As a team, the Anniversary Planning Committee was very deliberate in crafting activities which served multiple roles - those of expanding parenting capacity through education and training, equipping persons with the skills to better care for and protect our children, while also stressing the community's involvement in this process," McIntosh said.

The MOU, signed by CDA's CEO Rosalee Gage-Grey and Alicia Bogues, CB Chicken & Bad Dawg Sausages brand manager, will see the agency utilising CB's Pan Chicken Championship as a platform to reach its targeted audience, individually and collectively, by offering play therapy and counselling at CB Pan Chicken Championship events.

The agency hopes this will raise awareness and effect change as it educates Jamaicans about the need for protecting children and for good parenting. These are major thrusts of the CDA as it celebrates its 10th anniversary this year under the theme 'Protecting Children, Transforming Lives, Securing the Future'.

Currently a staple on Jamaica's event calendar, the CB Pan Chicken Championship, CB's annual food competition which also represents its promotion of entrepreneurship, was last year dubbed Jamaica's largest food festival. The company also saw more than 50,000 attendees at its Grand Final event alone, one of four events in the competition's season.

"We recognised that a call to action was needed to protect the children of Jamaica and are grateful for this opportunity to contribute," Bogues said.

The CB Pan Chicken Championship Western Regional Elimination, the next event in the series, will be held in Montego Bay on Saturday.