Shaggy and Friends raise $70m for Bustamante Hospital for Children

The atmosphere in the conference room at the Bustamante Hopital for Children in Kingston was beyond euphoric this afternoon as the Shaggy Make A Difference Foundation donated J$70 million to the facility.

The money was raised through donations and proceeds from the Shaggy and Friends Concert that was staged earlier this year.

Orville ‘Shaggy’ Burrell lauded the sponsors for the role they played in helping to make the concert a reality.

“This last concert, being our fourth installment of Shaggy and Friends, has been our biggest one yet and we couldn’t have done it without the help of our sponsors,” he said.

“There was a lot going on this year especially with The Voice and I wouldn’t have gone through with this if I didn’t know that I was working with some very confident people,” he said.

Burrell also stated that he experienced several challenges in staging the concert but noted that it was worth it.

“That venue (Jamaica House Lawns) was not designed for that amount of crowd, normally it would be around 4,000 people however this time it was close to about 10,000 or 11,000 people,” he said.

The money is to help with the establishment of a cardiac wing at the Bustamante Children’s Hospital.

According to Shaggy, the cardiac wing is a real need.

“I personally sat through a cardiac surgery and witnessed it myself, I remember speaking to the parent before and seeing how distressed she was. These doctors do some amazing and miraculous work,” he said.

credit: jamaica gleaner