3D"AS

= ; &= nbsp; &nb= sp;

The Jamaica= Women’s Centre Story<= o:p>

Pamela McNeil.

As My Mother Taught Me

The Jamaica<= /st1:country-region> Women’s Centre Story

<= span style=3D'font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Author := Pamela McNeil C.D., M.B.E.

Editorial Advisor : John Max= well

<= span style=3D'font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Foreword :<= b> Professor Barry Chevannes

ISBN 1 870717 21 X<= /span>

Series Editor : <= st1:PersonName>Dr Diana Birch

First Edition Published March= 2002

Published by Youth Support Publications

= ; 13 High Street Penge

London SE20 7HJ

Proceeds in aid of disadvanta= ged children and families

Web site http://www.youthsupport.net/YSBOOKS

No unauthorized copying or us= e of material.

About the Author=

Pamela McNeil

&n= bsp;

In 1951 a fresh faced 20 year old English girl stepped off a passenger ship and into a love affair with Jamaica<= /st1:country-region> and her people. Pamela Mc Neil – née= Pamela Elizabeth Cumberland&= nbsp; - has touched the lives of many and in each case she has ‘made a difference’. She has fearlessly thrown herself into whatever challenge presented= itself in a pro= fessional life that has encompassed administration, banking, social work and teachin= g. Her biggest challenge and greatest success has been the founding and nurtu= ring of the Women’s Centre of Jamaica Foundat= ion and carrying its message and ethos to other communities including Africa. The many young people, often destitute and abused, whom she has helped will know that their lives were touched by a woman who showed them unfailing devotion and selfless commitm= ent. On a personal level Pam is a mother and grandmother. She lives with her hu= sband Ruthven in the community of Woodford nestled i= n the Blue Mountains above Kingston= . There she is surrounded by = the things she loves – her family, her garden of flowers and the coffee = she and Ruthven have tended, her Rotweiler dogs, h= er mountains … and beyond … her Jamaica.

This narrative of the Women’s Centre of Jamaica Foundation (WCJF) is dedicated to the many young mothers who passed throug= h it’s doors and who, by their fortitude and stre= ngth, helped to forge a national programme of excell= ence.

We are together…

my chil= d and I

Mother and Child, yes, <= /o:p>

but sisters really, <= /span>

Against whatever denies us &#= 8230;

= ; we won.

<= /p>

Alice Walker

Acknowledgements –

= ;

Special th= anks are due to John Maxwell for his editorial skills and to Barry Chevannes fo= r his enlightened foreword. Their warmth of spirit contributed greatly to the completion of this book. Diana Birch a supporter of the Women’s Cent= re has helped in the final production and publication.

= ;

I wish to particularly acknowledge the contribution of Ruthven McNeil whose unstinti= ng support was always there when my strength and resolve was in danger of faltering along the road to build the Women’s Centre Foundation and without whom there may therefore have never been a book!=

CON= TENTS

Foreword = ; &= nbsp; &nb= sp; = ; &= nbsp; &nb= sp; 9

Chapter 1 – Remembering = ; &= nbsp; &nb= sp; 13

Chapter 2 – Beginning &nbs= p; = &n= bsp; &nbs= p; 23

Chapter 3 – The First Year – 1978 = &n= bsp; &nbs= p; 30

Chapter 4 – The Hard Years = ; &= nbsp; &nb= sp; 38

Chapter 5 – Expanding Across Jamaica<= /st1:country-region> = ; &= nbsp; 47

Chapter 6 – Africa and the Caribbean &nbs= p; = &n= bsp; 61

Chapter 7 – The Young Men = ; &= nbsp; &nb= sp; 67

Chapter 8 – Management Mode = ; &= nbsp; &nb= sp; 77

Chapter 9 – Conclusion &nb= sp; = ; &= nbsp; &nb= sp; 81

= ;

Appendix -= Programme Evaluations &n= bsp; &nbs= p; 92

Youth Support Publications = &n= bsp; &nbs= p; 106<= o:p>

About the Author = &n= bsp; &nbs= p; = 111<= o:p>

FOREWORD

Professor Barry Chevannes

Dean, Faculty of Social Science

University of the West Indies

When an unwed teenage girl gets pregnant she faces one of the most difficult periods she will ever under go in her entire life. The source of the family’s disgrace, she becomes the object of their scorn and abuse, verbal, physica= l and psychological. Community gos= sips discuss her fate. Her own fr= iends shun her. Her self-esteem si= nks to its lowest ebb, so low she may even attempt to take her own life and that = of the young one within her. Her clothes and personal belongings may be thrown out of the house and she has= to seek refuge from near relative. Alone. = Hurt.

The long days turn into longer weeks into impossibly lo= ng months. Inevitably, the tide turns. The child is born and= the culture of love for children triumphs over the need for social respectabil= ity and she and her baby are welcomed and reintegrated into the love and warmt= h of the family and kinsfolk. A n= ew member has arrived and that is the important thing. As for the teenage girl herself s= he now finds herself treated by her own mother as a woman, and their bond, almost miraculously, is better than it was before she got pregnant. Such is the well-known pattern throughout Jamaica<= /st1:country-region>, in effect a veritable rite = of passage from childhood into adulthood.

As with the Jamaican teenage = mother, so also with the Women’s Centre of Jamaica. When, as Pam McNeil tells it stra= ight from her heart, the Centre was founded, its very existence was a scandal.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> It was considered a shameless eff= ort aiding and abetting promiscuity among adolescent girls, and rewarding them= for their slackness. Respectable= people shunned the Women’s Centre. School principals would have nothing to do with it. And then, the tide began to turn,= as the culture of humanism triumphed over the hypocrisy of social respectability, realism over pretense.

Remarkably, the Women’s Centre has won not only t= he hearts of all Jamaicans for its work in restoring the self-esteem of its clients, continuing their education and setting them on a self-confident p= ath to upward mobility and success, but also the attention of many countries b= oth her in the Caribbean and further afield.<= /o:p>

Teenage indulgence in sex is not new. Nor will it go away. Indeed, how traditional societies treated it in the past was to marry off the daughters soon after puberty, = in that way avoiding the shame brought by a loss of virginity and out-of-wedl= ock childbirth.

But such societies now face now challenges. For one thing, it is now almost everywhere a thing of the past that women can be denied the rights to education. But, participation in education beyond the primary levels prolongs = the age of social maturity, sometimes well beyond the teens. Meanwhile the age of menarche is falling. Then too, the rise = and global spread of Western communications media with their sexual stimulatio= n in advertising the entertainment has been overriding the controls that tradit= ional societies maintained for the orderly and safe passage into adulthood.=

In this respect <= span style=3D'font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Jamaica<= /st1:country-region>, through the Women’s C= entre, has set the world an example of a realistic response to the new challenges. Many countries w= here the traditions of sex and pregnancy inside rather than outside marriage ar= e under siege have been emulating the example set by Jamaica in rescuing rather th= an further ruining the lives of unmarried adolescent mothers. Some of our Latin American neighbours have even been speaking of the “Caribbeanization” of their family pattern with= the rise of out-of-wedlock childbearing by adolescent mothers. They too have much to learn from = our experience.

Not surprisingly, everywhere it is the girl alone who suffers, though hers is only one-half of the act. Knowing this terrible one-sidedne= ss, the Women’s Centre has not been content with a prog= ramme for the girls only. It has established counselling, educational and other support for the babyfathers, as well, much to = the benefit of both parents, and of the child.

And here again, the Women’s Centre is breaking new paths. For up to the present= time it remains the only institution with a philosophy of male encouragement, r= ather than blame for what is a joint act. To be fair, many of those who blame the male, do so out of the assumption that the male being usually older, “ought to know better” than exploiting the naïveté of a young impressio= nable girl. But the reality is tha= t most babyfathers of the teenage girls are their social pe= ers, not much older than they are, and in some cases most definitely in love.

Much, of course, needs to be done. Prevention is infinitely better t= han cure, as everyone knows but not everyone is prepared to practice. It would be nice if all adolescen= ts would abstain from sexual intercourse until they reach social maturity or = the legal age of majority, but to be realistic that will not happen. Some will, but many, if not most, won’t. There are two m= easures which have to be taken if we are to let realism prevail over pretense.

One is the promotion of contraceptive behaviour among sexually active adolescents. This is yet another area where the Women’s Centre has registe= red success. The rate of repeat pregnancies by the girls who have been through the Ce= ntre’s programmes is extremely low, absolutely speaki= ng, and miniscule relative to girls who are not so privileged.

The problem we face here is the real fear of parents an= d the wider society that to promote responsible sexual beha= viour among adolescents means giving them license to indulge in sex. We need to trust our young people= . Young people are not all represse= d, waiting to break out of parental control.= At the Bridgetown Youth Summit a few years ago it was they who insi= sted on having inserted into the final declaration that abstinence was an optio= n.

Secondly, there is need to be specific about one particular kind of contraceptive, and that it the condom. At the present time,= only abstinence and limiting oneself to a sexual partner one is absolutely sure= of, are better than the condom in preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS. Young people must be told that. They must be told that the Caribbean= is the area with the highest= per capita rate of infections, second only to sub-Saharan African. That is the stark, inescapable re= ality.

If prevention is indeed better than cure, nothing would= , I am sure, gladden the heart of Pamela McNeil more than to make the Women= 217;s Centre redundant by the responsible sexual behaviour<= /span> of our adolescent children. = And if we are serious about this, we have no choice but to begin reaching them in= the schools at early ages, and, as they mature, counselli= ng them on contraceptives, in particular the condom.

* * * * *

Cha= pter 1

= ;

REMEMBER= ING

I was driving home to Maryland= that evening in January 1979 – just one year away from the opening of the first Women’s Centre. I was inconsolable &= #8211; dejected, despairing and broken hearted.&= nbsp; Why had I left my comfortable pad at the Queens’ Extension School? I had been happy there R= 11; in my element - teaching. Now, teachers looked at me in scorn – what did I think I was doing encour= aging these teen mothers in their sinful ways!

Thomas Wright alias Morris Cargill had just written a Gleaner article entitled “Little Wretches” proposing "…flogging with the Tamarind Switch and forced abortions” for the teen mothers. He asked, R= 20;How could we be giving them love and a second chance in life?” – little= wretches that they were!

My mind ran on the scene in my office just that morning. Standing before me brandishing a gun, was Alice’s “baby father.” Alice lived in Wareika Hills and when I found her, she was living in a “lean-to” R= 11; pregnant, no job, no family, no money. Alice came to the Women’s Ce= ntre – my new programme for Adolescent Mother= s - and even lived at home with me for a while.&n= bsp; I could not leave her to sleep on the dirt floor of that shack.

After a while we found an Aunt who took her in. She wanted her baby to be adopted because she could not look after it. She needed to begin to get a grip on her own life. A lovely couple who could not have children – she a primary school teacher with a warm, loving nature, = he a jovial, kind man –adopted the little boy. And did they love him! He was showered with love and aff= ection.

The man with the gun said, “I hear you give away = mi baby. Well, hear me now, I want ‘im back wid ‘im mother.”&n= bsp;

I took a wicker bassinet in my car and drove. No one can imagine the blank desp= air of those adoptive parents; the heartache was almost too much to bear. I asked them to trust me and that= I would indeed find another little boy for them. I returned to the Centre with my precious bundle. =

As I mounted the steps the man was waiting – he s= aid to Alice “is this ‘im?”

Alice nodded and took the baby from me. The man, his job done, w= alked to the gate. Alice followed, head bent. She had not seen him once during = her pregnancy and she probably never would hear from him again. As I watched her go I knew I had = to give up on this one, her road led to only heartbreak.

As I reached home, tears streaming down my face I colla= psed onto my husband’s chest. “Ruthven, I can’t do this, it’s too hard, I’ll never be able to break through with this <= span class=3DSpellE>programme.”&n= bsp;

I know he deeply felt my sorrow but what he said was “what are you crying for? After one year you had over a hundred girls at the Centre – y= ou got lots of them back into school - even three in high school! You can’t give up now. Reme= mber Maureen, remember Emma and the rest. They are relying on YOU – yes, = you Pam, to help them realize their dreams.&n= bsp; Get back in there and fight. Remember your life’s work has been with the youth leading you= to this day – remember.”

I sat on my verandah looking at the hills, sipping the = hot tea Ruthven had made for me, remembering the blue sea like glass glistenin= g in the morning sun as the “Bayano” do= cked at Kingston Harbour in 1951. I disembarked with my baby Theres= a in my arms and began my love affair with <= span style=3D'font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Jamaica<= /st1:country-region>.

I remembered the idyllic house on West Street in Port Antonio where after = work, I taught “out of school youth” on its wide, quiet verandah. Father Dwyer of St. Anthony’= ;s Church offered his church hall and soon, we built a strong youth club.

The youngsters enjoyed games evenings, debates on topic= al issues and listening to guest speakers from their community. They also worked hard helping eac= h other in literacy classes and raising funds for scholarships to be awarded to ne= edy children.

How the fire of independence burned in our hearts in th= ose days! I remember Karl Bryan = (my husband then), Everton (Tony) Greene, Gloria Greene, the young Crichton brothers and myself and the absolute adoration we had for our idol Norman Manley.

Norman Washington Manley, an eminent lawyer of internat= ional fame, was leader of the Peoples National Party (PNP) soon to win the Gener= al Election of 1955 when he would become Premier. However, at that time the Governm= ent was that of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) even th= ough most of us were in Government jobs, nevertheless throwing all caution to t= he wind, we supported Adrian Gray in his bye-election bid to secure the East Portland seat for the PNP. He won and we were elated –= even though some of us had to find other jobs!

Moving from Portland= to Kingston= in 1953 opened up an entirel= y new vista in my life. I met my idol Norman Manley. There was I holding his hand, gaz= ing into those twinkling eyes, literally sitting at his feet with other young comrades listening to him talk about what we could do with an independent = Jamaica<= /st1:country-region>.

My growing years in England<= /st1:country-region> had been coloured by my father’s political and trade union work which gave us children= a wide spectrum of people, ideas and impressions coupled with my mother̵= 7;s commitment to helping all who came within her sphere. It seemed then that, unknowingly, Norman Manley was leading me to use that experience in my new country.

I can remember spending my Saturday mornings helping No= rman Manley with the secretarial work of his constituency. I watched him listen intently to = every person who sought his help, giving, if necessary, the last penny he had to= a Comrade in need. My husband, Karl Bryan, became the Secretary of Mr. Manley’s constituency. This deepened our involvement with his work.

My memories of the literacy classes I ran at the Edna M= anley Health Clinic on Grants Pen Road centered on one young man, w= ho was very shy and reticent. He attended very regularly and made fantastic progr= ess, learning the basics of Mathematics and English very quickly. He soon landed a job and got hims= elf a bicycle.

One evening he came to class quite late and I, tired fr= om the day and feeling irritable, proceeded to bawl him out. As he pulled himself up to look d= own on me – (I hadn’t realized before how tall he was) – he sai= d, “I’m a big man Miss Bryan, you have no business speaking to me= like that.” A wonderful fee= ling went through me – this young man had arrived – he was, indeed,= no longer a shy, illiterate boy – he was “a big man” now.

Despite the heartache of poverty all about us, there we= re lighter moments. I remember at one of the children’s Christmas treat= s, Karl Bryan, dressed as Santa Claus with sack and “ho-ho-ho's” in place, having to beat a hasty retreat= to the back storeroom of the Edna Manley Health Centre, hotly pursued by a horde = of children eager to get a piece of the action – he was rescued eventua= lly, vowing never to volunteer for that job again.

Later while we were living in Mandeville, I taught the farming folk in Downs in St. Elizabeth to read and write. They wanted to learn and demonstrated = it by making their own benches and blackboard, bringing oil for the Tilley lamp = and providing fish and bammy for their teacher who= , they knew, was coming straight from work. I remember too, the sewing class I conducted at my home and the pretty 13 year old of Indian extraction who w= as forced to work in her mother’s bar and accept the humiliating words = and behaviour of the clientele.

Late one night, I responded to the doorbell to find Fat= her Angelo from St. Paul of the Cross leaning on the bell. “O.K. Pam, where= is she?”

I had to = admit that I had given the little one bus fare to Kingston= with a note to her maternal grandmother apprising her of the child’s situation. All ended well with the young one staying with her grandmother in Kingston= and doing extremely well in = school.

As I sat there reminiscing, I thought of my working life – mainly in banking and the absolute delight in being chosen to be a member of the first staff team of the newly established Central Bank, the Bank of Jamaica. in 1961. I worked in the Bankin= g and General Departments of the Bank of Jamaica and went on to be an Exchange Control Officer. Later in 19= 69, as the first woman to be appointed Manager Administration and Financial Contr= ol in Eastern Airlines, my experience in Administration broadened.

Here I came into conflict with Eas= tern’s top management. in supporting the rejection by = the women reservation agents of the new company policy which would change the agents’ status from that of full time permanent employees to tempora= ry part-time workers. The injus= tice to the women of this change in their status was clear. As part-time employees they would= be in danger of being laid off without pay whenever there was a slow period. Most of the agents were single wo= men, some of them mothers, all of whom depended on a monthly pay packet. In the end I had a choice –= I chose to leave Eastern.

I went over in my mind my work with JAMAL (the Jamaica = Adult Literacy organization) – cementing a lasting friendship with that am= azing woman, Joyce Robinson; my fund-raising for them which contributed ¼ million dollars in 6 months (I literally walked into offices and businesse= s and asked for money or goods and I got it!); and the setting up with young Sco= tt, the Literacy Office for South St. Andrew of the first Day Centre for Youth= at Lyndhurst Church Hall in 1973.

The “youth” were mainly young men from Trench Town= and Jones Town= . Consequently we had to provide a “weapons box” by the door wherein all kniv= es, and other weapons had to be dropped before classes began. They all behaved remarkably well = except for the time the “Drinks Truck” broke down outside the hall. Who did not have a free drink or = two that day was not a “South St. Andrew” man!!

I remember well my transition into Jones Town= proper. In the late ‘60’s, that fiery, brilliant young lawyer, Anthony Spaulding w= as fighting to wrest the South St. Andrew seat from the Jamaica Labour Party. He offered me the yard at Crook Street to run a Women’s Group= . I also ran a youth club at Jones Town= Primary School. Many of the young men from this g= roup went into the army, police force and civil service. The women became profi= cient in secretarial work, hairdressing and sewing. In addition to all this, they won= a Certificate of Merit at Festival that year for their singing!

One night stands out in my memory. We had sent a little= boy to the shop for some thread. Unfortunately the police were around investig= ating some pickpocket activity. Our young fellow ran as his mother, as any good ghetto mother would, told him to “just ru= n home if you see trouble.” He ran to us at Crook Street and was immediately chased a= nd held by a huge, loud policeman. Hearing all the noise we went out onto the stre= et just in time to see the policeman raising his baton to bring it down on the boy’s head – such a little head. I could do no more than spread my= arm in protection over that little head. My arm was a mess! The letter of apology= from the Commissioner’s Office did not make any of us feel any better.

But we went on.

Like women in any other inner-city area, Jones Town= women were poor. Day Care for their babies whilst = mother worked had to be provided by warm, loving friends and relatives within the= ir community. This, of course, = was a good thing – the babies were socialized within their community and t= he care-givers received some income no matter how small. The problem was that these caring women did not have the means to furnish a Day Nursery. Some babies were kept in packing = boxes near to open drains.

So, in 1972 Howard and Sheila Lamm= ie, Margaret Lee and others of us began a Day Nursery Project upgrading these “back-yard” nurseries by soliciting aid from local business people. Meanwhile we dreamed= of constructing a proper day nursery. We had been discussing this idea with Ted Warm= ington, a building contractor, and head of the Master Builders Association and we actually began the construction of a new Day Nursery on Asquith Street on Labo= ur Day 1973. Our dream was realized! Thereafter, the Youth Club members and <= /span>Jones Town= citizens gave their labour voluntarily each Saturday for almost a year, = to complete the work.

In 1969 my marriage to Karl Bryan, who had emigrated to Canada, was dissolved and in 1972 I embarked on a second marriage to Ruthven McNeil.

I thought of Ruthven and I, and our move to the East Ru= ral St. Andrew village of Maryland in 1972. The difficulties experienced by the villagers were many. No electricity, hardly any water a= nd the roads – mud, boulders and trenches. Ruthven began a Community Association in an effort to minimize at least some of these problems. Electricity came, water provision improved and through talks with his friend, Ernest Pe= art, the then Minister of Works, the roads were asphalted from Tamarind Tree co= rner on Newcastle Road through Maryland up to Woodford and down to Norbrook.

Ruthven’s management of a work scheme to improve = soil conservation in the area had every household regardless of political persuasion, having at least one week of work during the scheme. He improved relations between the almost warring communities of Maryland= and Woodford his effort culm= inating in an Easter Monday Fair and Sports Day.&= nbsp; It was gratifying to see Maryland= and Woodford men all taking = part in the sporting events together.

One morning, whilst at home, I saw a man running down t= he road with a bundle in his arms. It was his sick infant son that he held. I had no car on spot to help him = and was devastated to hear later that the baby had died – its problem had be= en stomach worms! Vowing that this would never happen again, a cry went out f= rom the Citizens Association for a clinic in the area.

The old church hall at Woodford was acquired and workda= ys introduced – villagers dug the septic pit – women lined up to = pass the stones, carpenters hammered and masons hewed – big cooking went = on and, with assistance from the Army sent to help by Member of Parliament, R= oy McGann, Maryland / Woodford had their clinic. To see mothers with infants walki= ng up the road from Maryland and down from Freetown= on clinic days was truly a g= lorious sight. Two community Health = Aides were in place (one from a very PNP family and one from a JLP family). No-o= ne can imagine our sorrow when, as the Government changed hands in 1980, the clinic was closed, the Health Aides fired and the community left to mourn.=

The Community Association also published a monthly newsletter entitled “The Stream” with items submitted by membe= rs of the community.

As I sat and mused over the past, I knew Ruthven was right. All these life experi= ences had fostered in me the vision of a well planned and administered, all incl= usive national programme for youth which would not o= nly benefit the nation now, but through succeeding generations. No more of these “little Dorcas” efforts which offered our girls some l= essons in cooking and sewing but a programme that all= owed the youth to reach their full potential in academic, technical and vocatio= nal training.

A dream? –<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> surely, it is only by work= ing through our visions and dreams that we achieve our reality.

* * * * *

Cha= pter 2

= ;

BEGINNIN= G

In 1968 just one year before he died, Norman Washington Manley retired as leader of the People’s National Party and followin= g an intense campaign, Michael Manley, Norman Manley’s son, was chosen as= the new leader of the People’s National Party. Michael Manley and the People’s National Party won the General Election of 1972 and embarke= d on a mission to improve the social conditions in <= st1:place>Jamaica<= /st1:country-region>.

Michael Manley recognized that in the creation of a just society, the full integration of women at all levels of national endeavour was an imperative. Consequently, in the early ‘70’s Michael established a Women’s Desk at the Office o= f the Prime Minister later to be expanded to a Bureau of Women’s Affairs.<= o:p>

“The need for a Committee to address the problem = of Adolescent Fertility is urgent” – so wrote Dorian Powell, Lect= urer in the Department of Sociology at the University of the West Indies to the Director of the Bureau of Women’s Affairs in July 1977.

As it happened, the Bureau under the leadership of Mrs. Peggy Antrobus was already in dialogue with the Pathfinder Fund (a division of USAID) requesting financial assistance for = the establishment of a programme to assist teen mo= thers to continue their education. This process was continued by Mrs. Hazel Blake Nelson who succeeded Mrs. Antrobus as Director of the Women’s Bureau in = 1977.

I didn’t know all this – I was grappling wi= th the reality of unplanned teenage pregnancy in young women at the Queens’ High School where, in= 1974, I had taken the position of Head of the Queens’ Extension School. Beseech and plead as I might, the= School Board would not modify their attitude and allow the girls to remain or, ev= en allow those in the examination class, to take their examinations. Haunting memories assailed me of the women in the Jones Town group, women of high intelligence forced to leave school because of an early, unwanted pregnancy – now in their late 20’s or early 30’s (but looking 20 y= ears older) with 5 or 6 children and grandchildren, almost unemployable due to = lack of education or skill training with their children doomed to poverty and a= ll it’s attendant maladies.

In 1977, if a girl dropped out of school because of pregnancy, she found it almost impossible to return. Usually her school place was quic= kly filled from a long waiting list and all her enquiries – if she ever = did reach a Principal’s office – were met with “no room.R= 21;

In discussing this problem with my dear friend, Hazel B= lake, the Director of the Bureau of Women’s Affairs I stressed the need fo= r a “holding Centre” to continue the education of girls who got pregnant whilst in school and to help them to protect themselves. We would teach them about Reproductive Health, Sex, Contraception and Parenting. We would try to help them gain the moral strength and dignity to withstand the temptations associated with ghetto living and inherent poverty. We would try to awaken them to th= eir true worth and to build the self-esteem that comes from realizing the full glory of their ancestry, since they had suffered, by premature pregnancy, = the outcome of a history not directed by them nor t= heir ancestors. They would also need encouragement towards continued education = in order for them to be women in the fullest sense of that word.

When, in October 1977 USAID approved the revised propos= al for a programme for adolescent mothers to be f= unded by the Pathfinder Fund and the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Hazel Blake called me with the message “here it is – you’= ;re the one always talking about this – now do it!”

It was only then that I understood the enormity of the problem I had undertaken to tackle. What on earth was I doing? I had a nice little afternoon school to = run at Qu= eens. I knew what I was doing the= re. Did I really want to step out into the unknown and try something society and t= he schools obviously did not want?

School Boards and most school Principals were adamantly opposed to accepting young mothers back into the school system. Parent / Teacher Associations seemed to take the view that pregnancy was a “communicable disease” to be “caught” by sitting n= ext to “one of those girls” in class. Middle class Jamaica<= /st1:country-region> did not take to this idea ki= ndly and even poorer inner-city residents would argue that the “pregnant = gal dem mus’ stay inna dem yard.”

It was no= t an easy moment for me, especially when I heard that some prominent women̵= 7;s groups in a meeting at Jamaica House, had railed against a “white woman” being given the job. This, after all, was the 70’= ;s with its newly resurgent nationalist fervour. However, fer= vour or no – no one else applied for the job. My reply then to Hazel was “since somebody has to champion the rights of these young women, I’ll give of my best.”

42 Trafalgar Road – the old house given = to the programme by the Government of Jamaica – looke= d like a jungle. Weeds and foliage overgrew everything – dirt was so deep we couldn’t tell whethe= r we had a tiled floor or a wooden floor. There was dirt, rust and dilapidation everywhere.

One bright November morning in 1977, I sat with Percy Williams –the watchman assigned to the property by the Lands Departm= ent, on cushions on the floor listening to Mass Percy’s experiences while= he was working in Panama= . We were awaiting the ten or so wo= men that Government would assign from their controversial Impact Programme, for interview for Day Care Assistants, Cl= eaners, Cooks, etc.

Did I say ten? … Over a hundred women of all ages, anxious to get out of the= heat and dust of road cleaning work answered the call. Finally, at nearly 4pm that day eight women had been selected with, Miss Louise Bradno= ck being given the job of Supervisor. Miss Bradnock or “Miss Lou:” as she was affectionately named, was by far the= best of the applicants, and she stayed the course and is still working in the <= span class=3DSpellE>programme.

At this stage I had to “timetable” myself. = Since the general-duty workers were undergoing training in Child Care and domest= ic duties to prepare them to run the Day Nursery which we would need and to c= ook and clean the Centre. We were helped in this training by that exceptional woman, Miss Ruth Brown, then Director at Operation Friendship. an inner city= social programme, so I was free in the mornings to be= gin the all important planning of the new organization.

Of course I had to establish certain parameters and principles for the programme; outline my goals= and objectives; map out work plans and strategies for academic, skill training, childcare and counselling sessions. Reproducti= ve health, sex and contraceptive training were going to be essential part of = the curriculum and we would need plans that were both vertical and horizontal.= I also had to formulate a correct methodology to deal with the bureaucracy, stakeholders, other agencies and= funders.

I needed to ensure that the progra= mme would meet all regulations, standards, sanctions, mandates and laws. This would entail examinations of= the adolescents’ rights as regard to the Education Act / Code, and Minis= try of Health regulations and laws.

An overall Plan of Action had to be devised to include action to deal with any difference in vision of progr= amme staff and stake holders vis-à-vis policy makers, bureaucrats, public at large and the media. And, most importantly, budgetary and financial requirements and control needed to be sourced.

One morning while I was involved in writing out my plan= s, I heard some of the Women’s Bureau staff members remarking that I was “just shuffling pieces of paper around.” What amazed me was that these peo= ple were Social Science graduates who could not see nor had they learnt the importance of planning before the implementation of any programme. Recent adjustments in the Social = Science courses at the University of the West Indies now allow for instruction in administration, economics= and statistics.

My afternoons were spent at 42 Trafalgar Road assisting the new staff in stripping the dirt and generally preparing the building and grounds for the trainees. My working togethe= r with the women inside the building and with the watchmen in beautifying the gar= den would later be very important in developing trust, respect for each other = and real loyalty. It also gave m= e time to talk to the new staff explaining why the programme= was necessary and helping them see the “Big Picture.”

Carpenters, masons and assistants were recruited from o= ur trusted neighbours in the Maryland= / Woodford area. These men, under the supervision = of Ruthven, transformed the old garage into a cozy, adequate day nursery for = the expected babies and the main building into offices, classrooms, with dinin= g and kitchen areas.

While this renovation was underway, odd things began to= be reported. Strange closing and opening of doors and movements of furniture. We paid little attention to this = until our carpenter, a hefty young Rastafarian called Ken Sterling – worki= ng nights to get the job completed saw – etched in the moonlight –= ; the figure of a man entering the building through the back wall of the kitchen. Ken and his assista= nts ran in terror from the building and panic prevailed amongst the workers.

I took the traditional Jamaican course - I bought some = white run and methylated spirits and, with staff and workers joining in sprinkled all inside corners of the buildings saying “Be gone bad spirits – leave us in peace!” After this, peace and quiet reign= ed. Although it did occur to me that = since the last Resident Magistrate to reside and to expire at 42 Trafalgar Road = was Judge Swaby with his demure maiden sisters, th= ey might not have been enchanted with the idea of a teenage mothers’ programme being sited in that particular house ̵= 1; who knows?

= Whilst these preparations wer= e being made, I had to meet quite often with the USAID representative in Jamaica<= /st1:country-region>, whose money we were spendin= g. This charming gentleman, Mr. Terrence (Terry) Tiffany was completely sold on the idea of such a programme. He loved it! In trying to assist in any way he= could, he suggested that he arrange for me a familiarization and educational tour= of programmes dealing with teen mothers in the <= st1:country-region>USA.

= I thought long and hard on th= is one. The programm= es in the States were mostly residential at that time, and although they had a great deal of money, they did not seem to be meeting their goals, especial= ly in the area of delaying second pregnancies. For example, at the “Webster Home= for Girls” just outsid= e Washington in the USA the second pregnancy rate ra= n at 60-70%!

Taking that into consideration and the fact that our children were not Americans and had emerged from a completely different cu= lture and history, and that I might well be drawn to copy the American model hav= ing once seen it, with utmost politeness, I refused the offer. As I explained to Terry Tiffany, = this would have to be a Caribbean programme for Caribbean= children. He understood comp= letely. Terry Tiffany was that kind of a man.

Dorian Powell pledged and gave her valuable assistance = in compiling evaluation forms, teachers from Queens Extension School pledged themselves as part-t= ime teachers, Ruthven McNeil gave of his time voluntarily – so the scene= was set, the die cast.

* * * * *

Cha= pter 3

The First Year – 1978

I had just entered the hallway at <= span style=3D'font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:windowtext;font-weight= :normal; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>Victoria Jubilee Hospital (the largest lying in hospital in Jamaica and one of the largest in the world). It was my first visit seeking hel= p from the nurses there to contact young mothers under 16 years who might be atte= nding the ante-natal clinic. I had= no idea what the reception would be.

Sister Huie, hearing why I was there, th= rew her arms around me like some long lost sister. “Oh, Mrs. McNeil you have= no idea how glad I am that someone is coming to help us in this problem.” <= /span>

The Jubilee nurses were almost at the end of their rope without the resources to deal adequately with many young mothers and the social proble= ms associated with the steep rise in teen pregnancies –recent figures f= rom Jubilee had showed an alarming upward movement in teen motherhood - from 2= 6% of total births in 1971 to 31% in 1977.

Feeling acutely isolated at Trafalgar Road, this reception confirmed my conviction that this new programme I had taken= on was needed and that if I had the nurses behind me, our success was assured.

Sisters Huie and Stewart ar= ranged to give us a small room where the pregnant teens could sit in comfort with= us on clinic days and discuss their most private problems. Of course we also encouraged them= to come to the programme at the Women’s Cen= tre.

Heartened by the Jubilee reception, I visited the other Government clinics in Kingston and the reception by the nur= ses was always warm, positive and very helpful.

From a list of names given to me at the Norman Gardens Clinic and other Kingston clinics, I visited many young mothers and pregnant teens at their homes. Typical of these home situation= s was a single parent family living in one room – beds end to end with har= dly any space to move, a dresser was on the back verandah with a dinette set a= nd small stove while the front verandah was the “sitting” area. T= he absolute neatness, cleanliness and “trying” atmosphere of these little homes endeared my sisters to me forever. In Jamaica<= /st1:country-region>, “we poor but we trying” is the slogan of those who don= 217;t intend to give in.

I started to visit schools. I had needed to decide whet= her to go the Ministry of Education route and press them to instruct schools to cooperate with the programme or to deal direct= ly with the Principals and school staff in order to convince them of the overall benefits of continuing education of the young mothers and avoidance of fur= ther unwanted pregnancies. It was obvious to me that going to the schools, alth= ough more time consuming, would be most effective.

My visits to schools were disastrous! If I was received at all I had the definite impression that I was considered quite beyond the pale. Sometimes I was listened to polit= ely but to most, I was obviously a nuisance wasting valuable time.

I changed my tactics – at the next round of visit= s to the schools rather than emphasize the “right” of the young mot= hers to an education, I dwelt on the social maladies affecting all of us= in society, flowing from the practice of throwing young mothers out of school= with no safety net for her, her child or her subsequent children.

As I remarked, “when you throw this young woman o= ut of the system do you believe that she and her baby cease to exist? They remai= n in the society to create massive problems for all of us further down the road.”

Gradually, some of the old attitudes began to change an= d the first girls began to be referred to the Centre.

A welcome addition to the staff came in March 1978 when, Mrs. Sheila Grant was seconded to the programme from the Ministry of Housing. She= ila had been very effective in community work at the Ministry and her background p= roved very valuable to us. I was s= oon able then to turn the school and clinic visits over to Sheila and return t= o the business of implementing the programme.

The Project Proposal we were working from, although academically sound was impractical in many ways and had to be adjusted in = order to comply with reality. In discussing this with the Director of Women̵= 7;s Bureau, Hazel and I agreed to change the terms of the proposal to allow us= to accept any pregnant teenager under the age of 16. The proposal had called for us to= induct 40 girls per year between the ages of 14 and 16 years. However, I felt tha= t the 12 and 13 year olds were probably more in need of our services at their te= nder age, than any other group. M= ost importantly, we had to recognize that they were there and we could not turn them away if we were to deal fully with our problems and not attempt just a “face card.”

It appeared to me that our prog= ramme would be of little assistanc= e to us in Jamaica if we merely acceded to the = wishes of some interests which desired that somewhere in this hemisphere we colle= ct forty little “guinea-pigs” of the correct size, age, weight an= d colour and obser= ve the reaction to certain type of treatment.&nb= sp; I really felt that this programme would be a fruitless exercis= e if all we were concerned with was fitting our adolescent mothers into a frame= work, the main purpose of which was to produce an evaluation based on data which= was preconceived in a purely theoretical situation. Surely, if we could accept all th= ose young mothers who needed us we would not only have had enough statistical = data to allow for a meaningful evaluation of this kind of prog= ramme but would also have begun to= solve our own underlying problem.

Another point at issue was that the original proposal recommended that we take girls only from the “New Secondary” s= chool system. That way, it was perceived, a success point could be pre-establish= ed when the girl achieved her School Leavers’ Certificate. On the other hand, I felt that this programme should assist= the young mother to achieve her full potential and to suggest that the pinnacl= e of our success would be when the girls obtained a School Leavers’ Certificate would make a complete mockery of the true potential of this programme.

I proposed that girls be accepted from all academic or technical secondary schools and be placed back in their schools at the end= of their stay at the Centre.

The original proposal called for the girls to be in ses= sion only during the months of April, July and August to prepare them for retur= ning to school in September each year. In confining her stay at the Centre to only 3 months of the year we would be denying the very essence of the term “Continuing Education = for the Teen Mothers.” Con= tinuing education must mean that if the girl leaves school because of pregnancy, s= he enters a Women’s Centre programme and re= turns to school as soon as possible (preferably 3 months) after the birth of her child. This would give= us ample time to upgrade her academic standard and also to provide the in-dep= th counseling required.

After getting the go-ahead from Hazel I deliberately pl= anned the Centre programme to coincide with the norm= al school year and consequently the “back to school exercises” wo= uld take place at the beginning of each school term.

A daily Time Table was drawn up with emphasis on English Language and Mathematics and including History, Civics and Biology. We cho= se to recruit specialist part time teachers in each subject from Corporate area = High Schools. These teachers were not only highly trained but already active in= that part of our education system dealing with the age group of our participant= s. We also enlisted the help of two male teachers to present an example to the g= irls of well-trained, committed young men and to prevent the Centre from becomi= ng an “all woman” show.=

In my Plan of Action for the first academic year, I inc= luded the compilation of an “Intake Interview Sheet.” I deliberately designed this sheet to elicit as much information as possible from the participants not only to assist in the evaluation process, but also to pro= vide a full insight into the lives of the young mothers.

The capital and recurrent budgets approved for the Women’s Centre had obviously been compiled using a “ball park” figure – no costing had been done. When it came to buying furniture and equipment and projecting the cost of food, staff and utiliti= es there were definite shortfalls. Added to this, from the programme side, we ourselves had increased projected expenditure by extending the training period. I knew we w= ere in trouble!

The total involvement of our small staff was key. Together we plotted a plan of action to deal wit= h our precarious financial situation. We would utilize all the voluntary help available from other agencies and the public and private sector, We would literally beg everyone we approached to thin= k of the students as their daughter needing vital equipment and goods to enable= them to learn. We would go out and raise funds. We all went on the road and, miraculously, by opening day April 1^st 1978 we had everything -furniture, staff, food; we even had a telephone!

We began our programme with= 17 students from Norman Manley, Holy Trinity, Pembroke Hall, Vauxhall, Papine and Duhane= y Park= Secondary School and others from home and cli= nic visit contacts. Many of those originally contacted did not turn up –= we were aware of the Jamaican habit of watching something new for a while bef= ore joining in and, secretly, I was overjoyed to see those 17 girls! In the negative climate of those times it could well have been none!

Since we had no money for text books, I approached the Ministry of Education and got from them Jamaica School Certificate text books. These, together with = the text book the teachers gave, those the girls already owned and gifts, allo= wed us to managed very well.

= ;

Since the grounds at 42 Trafalgar Road were spacious, I thought it = would be good to have a netball court for the girls. I approached the Ministry of Work= s and was told that they only paved pathways and parking lots for Government buildings. So … I appl= ied for a parking lot at the front of the premises. This was approved with enthusi= astic help from the Minister Ernest Peart.

As the Ministry of Works men completed the task and lef= t, the Boy Scouts moved in and marked out a Netball= Court= . Some of the baby fathers who were training as welders made the stanchions and posts for the nets and the Government development agency, the Social Development Commission gave us t= he nets and the balls.

One of our visitors was Mrs. Beverley Manley, wife of t= he Prime Minister. She was also President of the PNP Women’s Movement a= nd brought gifts of irons, ironing boards and utensils for the babies in the = Day Nursery. Many others gave li= nen, pots, plastic plates, etc. A= ll this gave us renewed strength to go on.

The Jamaican Family Planning Association situated in St. Ann’s Bay even allowed their Youth Counsellor, Mr. Knight, to travel to Kingston every Thursday to instruct the students = in Family Planning and to counsel individually. Bureau of Health Educators came w= eekly to instruct in Reproductive Health, Sex Education and general health. We also received voluntary assist= ance in Child Care and Parenting for both the young mothers and the baby fathers.<= o:p>

The numbers grew and we ended the year with a student b= ody of 108, 15 of whom came from traditional high schools! 14 of the original 17 students we= re placed back into the school system by year-end and our funders graciously acknowledged that the programme “… was a partial success.” Second year funding was assured!<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Living from hand to mouth was ove= r.

At the beginning the Programme had a second component - to attempt to equip young unemployed mothers aged 18-= 30 years with skills with which to support themselves and their children. Out= of the 40 young women selected, 36 attended the first interview. All of these 36 were placed at th= e new Vocational Training Centres – some to tr= ain in garment construction, leather craft, carpentry and woodwork, radio and TV repair. But, by far the most interesting group was those 8 women who elect= ed to train as heavy-duty vehicle drivers! In 1978 this was most unusual. They came from places as diverse = as Bull= Bay<= /st1:place> in St. Thomas and Mount Charles in the hills of St. Andrew.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Since they had to reach their tra= ining site at Twickenham Park= , near Spanish Town= , by 8:30am, most had to get out of bed = by 4:00am. to be on time.

The men, instructors and male trainees, obviously had negative attitudes towards women training to drive heavy equipment. Althou= gh the women had got out of bed before daylight to reach the training site, t= hey were forced to wait ‘til 2 or 3 in the afternoon for their training sessions while the male trainees – no matter what time they arrived,= had first call! The woman never = gave up – they all passed and received their Drivers Licenses. At the formal opening of the Programme they performed a hilarious skit on their training, showing up their male counterpart and their attitudes in a most amusing way.

So ended the first year.

Now we had to muster the strength to face the myriad problems, which were opening up for us in “79!

* * * * *

Cha= pter 4

The Hard Years

I sat on that = hard bench outside the Principal’s office at St. Andrew Technical High Sc= hool (STATHS) for six hours that day. Mr. Isaac Henry, the Principal, had refer= red 6 girls to the Women’s Centre but had taken back none – refusing= even to see me. So I sat, with my ‘bulla’ and drink and waited R= 11; sure of one fact – he would have to come out of his office to go home sometime. =

While sitting = there I re-read the letter I had received just that morning from Emma. She wrote: “please help me I cannot live this way anymore, we can hardly pay the rent. Each Saturday I go wit= h my mother to Coronation Market and we sort through the “throw away̶= 1; things picking out the discarded pieces of yam, vegetable and whatever, so= that we can eat. I am so ashamed of the way we live. Now I must leave school as I am p= regnant – Mrs. McNeil help me.” =

If Mr. Henry and the other intract= able principals did not see the light, bright girls like Emma and her offspring would never be able to enjoy even minimal living conditions.

Mr. Henry came= out of his office looked at me and boomed, “I can take one – just = one, get her to me tomorrow.”

Back at Trafalgar Road next d= ay, I chose the best student I had. Catherine was tall, athletic and very bright. “CatherineR= 21; I said, “If you ever let us down I’ll never want to see you again – understand? Go and g= ive of your very best and remember all the young sisters who will come after you, needing a place at St. Andrew Technical.”

Catherine went= on to run for STATHS in inter-school sports, became Deputy Head Girl and pass= ed 7 subjects at “O” Level.

One day, while Catherine was still at STATHS, I had a visitor. Mr. Isaac Henry sat with me in my= office and pledged his total support for the programme – not only at STATHS but, he said, “I will make sure the other principals conform.”

I have always remembered Mr. Henry as a truly, great man – to have completely chan= ged his attitude, admitting that his previous judgement was flawed, denoted true greatness.

At the end of = 1978 we had 15 referrals to the programme from High Schools but only 3 returnees. The Principals of those three schools, Jeane= tte Grant Woodham of Tivoli Comprehensive, Joan Re= ader of St. Andrew= High School and Sister Bernadette of Alpha Academy should surely= go down in history as the most enlightened educators of their era. With no hesitation at all; understanding, without need of explanation from me, tha= t to accept these young mothers back into the school system was an imperative.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> They, together with Isaac H= enry, assisted greatly in strengthening the positives of the programme with other principals.

Early in 1979, Sheila Grant, who had been so very effective in spreading the programme throughout the new secondary school system= with her persuasive manner, her staying-power and, of course, her wonderful smi= le, completed her year’s secondment and was returned to the Ministry of Housing. What is it that we say? – “when one door closes another opens” – To take Sheila= 217;s place came Lorna Pitter – a much more matter of fact, spry young counselor, different from the laid-back, cool style of Sheila but, very, v= ery effective both in the in-house counseling and in the Principals’ off= ices.

Our funders gave us an additional post of Family Plannin= g Counsellor and Patsy Nesbitt joined our team. How ca= n I describe Patsy to you? A large, earthy, well set up Jamaican lady whose wa= rmth and love for young people exuded from every part of her. When she took a sobbing, despairi= ng young girl to her large, welcoming bosom cooing “there, never mind then, n= ever mind,” the effect on the child was instantaneous – she relaxed= and her tears abated.

Another truly God-sent addition to our small staff was Irene Harris Williams. Irene had been the Arts and Crafts teacher at Kingston Technical – her principal said of her “with Irene there is no generation gap whatsoever.” How true! Irene was over retirement age, af= fected by glaucoma but with the energy and commitment of a twenty year old.

One day I lite= rally dragged myself back to the Centre, dispirited with the fact that even thou= gh I’d spent all day at the schools only 2 students had been placed. I = sat across from Irene at her desk and our minds ran on Christ’s mother a= nd the fact that historians had put her age at 13 years when she was expectin= g Our Lord. How she must have suff= ered in that strict Jewish society, how alone she must have felt when Joseph deser= ted her.

Deep into the subject, I said to Irene, “what we need is a logo – something = that depicts exactly who we are and what we stand for.”

Irene began sketching – “Is this what you’re thinking of?” = ; &= nbsp; &nb= sp; = ;

I could not be= lieve the beauty of that depiction of the essence of womanhood Irene had drawn.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> We knew Irene was inspired –= ; she has never been able to do that again!&nbs= p; I also knew who was protecting and leading us in this programme. The contentment I felt at that moment was overwhelming.

The type of sanctuary the Women’s Centre had become was clearly demonstrated whe= n one of our young mothers, Rose, had a premature baby and was staying away from= the Centre to visit her baby daily at Jubilee.

Patsy Nesbitt persuaded Rose to come to the Centre after her visits to the hospital. Thi= s she did. Two weeks later, on her arrival at the hospital she was told her baby= had died. She came directly to t= he Centre where we were able to help her through. This also gave the other students the opportunity to aid Rose in her tragedy. Rose lived alone with= her father and, good man though he was, she needed = female companionship at that time.

Hans Gaegner head of United Nations Population Fund (UNFP= A) in Jamaica had se= t in motion assistance from his organization for our fledgling programme and arranged for the Head of UNFPA, Dr. Nafis = Sadik to visit us. He now arranged for a group of Sw= edish parliamentarians to visit the programme. Hans = was a man whose total commitment in life was to people. He loved people, especia= lly young people. He was also an= artist of sorts. He used to send no= tes decorated with sailing ships (those were his forte) on a wide expanse of sea. Figuratively, he dispat= ched one of his ships to Sweden to bri= ng the Women’s Centre a heap of goodies. That visit by the Swedes resul= ted in SIDA’s six year partnership with the = Women’s Centre Programme – unprecedented in all = our funding arrangements. It also allowed us to relax and go on with our work free from worrying where the n= ext dollar would come from.

Things were go= ing well. The schools were beginning to relax and start the needed process of referral and acceptance. Onl= y a few more bastions of judgementalism needed to be breached. =

Then, my car b= lew up!

This was the l= one transport we had at the Women’s Centre in an era when transportation= of any kind was extremely sparse. In the ‘70’s, our country was in debt, struggling under the oppressive conditions of an International Monet= ary Fund policy. We were just not earning enough foreign exchange to pay for t= he importation of things like trucks and cars and other expensive capital goo= ds.

My transport, = and the only vehicle available for the Centre, was one tiny Honda Life –= a mini-mini with what looked like a small motorcycle engine – a noisy = four stroke. Ruthven had develope= d the obviously risky habit of loading the tiny Honda with lumber (when it was obtainable), cement, concrete blocks, cases of tinned food, sacks of cornm= eal and flour among other things. Is it any wonder that my little car finally gave out in the middle of Trafalgar Road one morning, the engine emitting smokey swirls whi= ch drifted lazily upwards? A tr= agic end to a courageous little vehicle! Kind neighbours helped us to get home and reach office next morning.

I sat at my de= sk, literally holding my head. How to get to the Ministry for money? How to ge= t to the schools, hospitals, clinics? How to ferry the staff to their outside appointments? How to do anything at all?&= nbsp; The ‘phone rang – my dear friend Claudia von Braunmühl of the German Peace Corps was on the = line telling me the sad news that the Peace Corps was leaving Jamaica but would= I like to have one of their cars? They had to dispose of all their equipment. “Dear Mothe= r of God”, I said and meant that literally! She gave us a Ford Escort Sta= tion Wagon.

So, I was off = out to the schools again. One day as I drove up to Immaculate Conception High School I remembered the scene a few months back as Betty’s mother br= oke down in my office, pulling a scarf from her head to show me the white hairs that she said had come overnight on learning that her one child was pregna= nt at 12 years old. It seemed that= due to the zoning regulations at the Ministry of Education, Betty having passed C= ommon Entrance, was sent to a rural St. Andrew High School. Because of t= he distance between home and school, Betty’s mother arranged for her to= be boarded with family members in the hills.= A young son of the household seduced her. At the request of both mo= ther and daughter the baby when it came, was to be adopted. <= /p>

One afternoon,= near to the delivery date, Betty complained of not feeling well. Since she was not in pain we sent= her home by taxi and alerted her mother at work. Her mother came by a day late= r, requesting that we stop the “adoption business.” As she related it, she put Betty = to lie down on the bed but, when she examined her daughter she saw the baby’= ;s head appear. She could do no more than run outside for a bucket, place her daughter on this and the babe was born. An ambulance came and took the you= ng mother and her new baby to Jublilee Hospital. <= /span>

“DonR= 17;t you see Miss Mac, God send the baby into me house – I must keep him now.”

I had arrived = at Immaculate and eventually was ushered into Sister Maureen Clare’s of= fice. I related the story exactly as it had happened to the Principal.

Sister hesitat= ed for a while, then looked at me and said “Well, God must have sent he= r to me, bring them to see me on Monday.”

‘Betty&#= 8217; was our first entrant at Immaculate and she did well, not remarkably, but = well.

This whole experience seemed to have a disturbing effect on my young Secretary / Accountant, ‘Anna.’ Anna first came to the Women’s Centre from a rural St. Andrew village as a 15 year old student / mother. Back at school, she performed very well at CXC level especially in Accounts and Office Procedures. We needed an assistant, so she was hired. Having placed Betty at Immaculate I arrived back in office to find Anna in tears.

“But, wh= at is this Anna?” I said, “this is by no = means the worst case we’ve had to deal with here – look how well it’s turned out now!

“Oh don’t you see Miss= Mac: Anna cried “it’s the whole thing – it’s everything= we girls have to go through – the whole wretched thing.”

“But Anna,” I said, totally disconcerted “you’re doing so wel= l, you and Dave are so happy now, planning to get married – what could = be so wrong.”

Anna gazed out= of the window for a while and then began a story I had not heard before.=

Anna recounted= that when she was 8 years old, her mother had emigrated to the United State= s. She went to live with her maternal grandmother. Between harrowing = sobs, Anna recounted how her young uncle, age about 20, had almost nightly, sinc= e she was 9 years old, dragged her to the bathroom, stuffed a towel in her mouth= and raped her. When she complained bitterly to her grandmother she was readily= rebuffed and told she was a lying little wretch and if it did go so it was she who = was shameless and sinful. Of course, she was accusing the son of her grandmoth= er who was not about to see her boy convicted of rape. Anna endured all this = until she met Dave, a student too, and they fell in love. When she became pregna= nt – possibly intentionally – she went to stay with her mother= 217;s cousin, a kindly lady who brought her to us at the Women’s Centre.

Holding Anna so closely, feeling her pain, I asked, “Anna you’ve have been here with us for over 3 years – why didn’t you tell us this before?”

Anna just said “I couldn’t Miss, I couldn’t but now it just must come out.”

Lorna Pitter t= ook over in her quiet, efficient way even getting the wedding dress made. Anna and her husband emigrated bu= t have kept in touch and are both now highly paid professionals in their new coun= try.

* * * * *

By 1981 we had assisted nearly 600 young mothers - sending them back to school as confide= nt self assured young women ready to take on the world. We had begged a few scholarships here and there, held fund raising tea parties and barbeques to find school fees. We now began to see some of the earlier participants ent= ering Tertiary level education. We could not have been more proud had they been = our own children.

We had done all this in three years. We had done better than our wildest dreams. We had weathered a change of Government in 1980 from the Peoples National Party t= o the Jamaica Labour Party. We saw other social programmes terminated or put on hold while we were a= llowed to continue and had the added “brawta= 221; of being placed under the Minister of State for Women’s Affairs, Miss Princess Lawes.

Yes, we had succeeded in an urban setting – could we succeed in a rural one? Time would tell.

* * * * *

Cha= pter 5

Expanding Across Jamaica

“Lawd Ms. Mac, she gone to bed.” So observed Patsy Nesbitt answering my query of her.

“Don’t you think Valerie Robinson will make an excellent Centre Manager for the new rural Centre in Mandeville?” Mandeville is strategically place= d in the parish of Manchester in central Jamaica with a well established road system which made it easily accessible= to other parts of the island.

The year was 1982 and Sweden had displayed absolute confidence in our ability to expand our Adolescent Mothers programme into rural Jamaica, by providing the entire funding for a new rural Centre including provision for, not only all capital and recurrent expenditure, b= ut also for rental of a premises – all of this for 3 years. We could do= no more than produce excellent results – a new challenge, a new beginni= ng.

Coming down to earth from this state of “euphoria” – my first job was to find suitable accommoda= tion for the programme. Government tried to help by suggesting the use of an old warehouse in Williamsfie= ld – a district near to Mandeville.&nb= sp;

Valerie Robinson and I were non-committal in our commen= ts on this dark, dank, windowless building but our hearts were heavy. But, by ch= ance, I was chatting to a neighbour of mine, George = Lam – “Oh” said he “my aunt Nirvana Lam owns a couple = of houses on Patrick Road in Mandeville – I think they’re for rent.”

Number 10 Patrick Road was more than suitable ̵= 1; so was the rental and the Lams did not mind our renovating the rooms and gara= ge to provide classrooms and a Day Nursery. Valerie went ahead and in two two= 217;s the place looked like a comfortable, quiet little nest – pretty curt= ains at the windows, attractive mobiles in the nursery and colourful plastic tablecloths. She encouraged the Dinnall husband and wife team – now retired from teaching, to come in and he= lp – Mrs. Dinnall as the Counsellor and her husband as the part-time teacher. Oh! What hearts of gold welcomed= the distressed mothers and daughters at this new Centre!

Although Valerie put every ounce of her energy into the= programme, the response from the schools was limited= . Nothing short of a blitzkrieg wou= ld do – and that’s exactly how we operated. Each morning, I was up a= t the crack of dawn to meet Valerie and we would begin. From <= span style=3D'font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Northern Manchester we charged through almost ev= ery district in the Parishes of Manchester and St. Elizabeth, walking in unannounced on our quarries – the Principals of schools, engaging th= eir help and support for the new Centre.

One evening, though soaked to the skin with the persist= ent rain, Valerie and I attended the local Jamaica Teachers Association meetin= g in Mandeville and put our points forward forcefully. The end result was more support for our new Centre in the form of referrals and part-time teachers= .

The numbers of students began to rise, babies were cryi= ng in the Day Nursery and young fathers and parents of the teens were seen sitti= ng with staff members resolving family and personal issues. It was a success – the programme was indeed transportable= from an urban to a rural location. More Centres would follow.

In the mid-eighties we were woken from our self-congratulatory mode by the news that the LamR= 17;s were selling out all their properties in Mandeville. T= hen began the fruitless trek to Ministers and bureaucrats to hear – R= 20;we have no money.”

I took the plunge and wrote to Sweden begging them to consider sen= ding us funds with which to purchase the property. They sent J$250,000.00 and after urgent talks with Mr. Lam he agreed to let us buy for that amount. The iro= ny here is that, because we were a Government Department at that time, the property had to be registered in the name of the Government of Jamaica!

Of the thousands of students passing through Mandeville Centre the majority, like Joy and Maureen, would go on to complete their education. Joy passed her “A” levels at Knox= Community College and entered the UWI pursuing= a degree in Computer Studies. Maureen passed 7 CXC subjects and went on to t= he Management Institute for National Development and took her AAT finals preparatory to becoming a Chartered Accountant.

Later on the Red Cross Society through their Norwegian = Branch, was to build a skill training complex at Mand= eville Centre which has assisted older women to access a skill.=

During the eighties we were supported in no small way by UNFPA, USAID and SIDA with local on-going donations coming from ALCAN, Nat= ional Commercial Bank, Victoria Mutual Building Society, Jamaica National Buildi= ng Society and others. But by far the most significant assistance resulted fr= om a meeting with Ms. Yvonne Clarke and Mrs. Campbell from the Jamaica Red Cross Society (JRC). They solicited funds from their Norwegian counterparts which were used to establish no less than 5 additional Cent= res across Jamaica.

Brown’s Town in the Parish St. Ann and near to the North Coast of Jamaica, was the first of these five new Centres. A very large house was acquired i= n 1986 which enabled us to have, when remodelled, amp= le classroom and counselling space with a down st= airs day nursery complex.

Here, the first of our chicken farms was inaugurated. In learning how to rear and market chickens, girls from all rural Centres eventually went back to school with a skill = with which to augment their income.

In time, we moved this Centre from Brown’s Town t= o the St. Ann Parish capital of St. Ann’s Bay in order that mo= re students could access the programme from the adjoining Parishes of Trelawny and St. Mary. T= he Anglican Church in St. Ann’s Bay allowed us to us= e their old church hall rent-free. Quarters were decidedly cramped but the type of staff we had, led by Velma Monteith, easily ma= de a comfortable refuge for the girls and their babies.

Soon our endurance was rewarded as the Jamaica Social Investment Fund built a grand new Centre for us on the Seville<= /st1:City> lands in St. Ann<= /st1:City>’s Bay. What an opening= we had! Absolute happiness and = relief were unmistakably there in the body language of the staff – their laughter and gaiety filled the new Centre – they hugged the babies, = kissed the girls held hands with the young men and the parents – it was that kind of day!

It is always difficult to choose just one of the hundre= ds of teen mothers attending a Centre but Gillian was, perhaps, most typical of = the St. Ann<= /st1:City>’s Bay group. She was returned to High School w= here she sat and passed 6 subjects at CXC. By then her mother had migrated leav= ing her in a very risky situation with her stepfather. When things got really difficult Velma Monteith, the Centre Manager, = was instrumental in moving her to live with her grandmother but as there was no financial help at all, the Centre had to assist her not only financially b= ut with counselling and care. They helped to get = her a loan from the Students Loan Bureau to attend the Brown’s Town= Community College who, in turn, seeing her dif= ficulty allowed her to take her baby with her to classes. This student was that impressive! She went on to be elected Miss Brown’s Town= Community College.

Her troubles were not over. Relatives of her stepfather= , in all probability jealous of her success, started a street altercation with = her and she was chopped severely on the head with a machete. She was hospitali= zed but, just as every dark cloud has a silver lining, her young “baby father” reappeared on the scene – he helped with the baby and = also assisted Gillian in getting a place to live with her baby. She went on to = study successfully for a Business Associate Degree at the University of Technology.

The following year it was Montego= Bay’s turn.

Montego Bay, as all acquainted with Jamaica<= /st1:country-region> know, is the second largest = city in Jamaica and capital of the north coast tourist area. Ag= ain we made the rounds of dilapidated, vandalized buildings belonging to one Government Department or another. Then came a v= isit to 2 Peter Pan Avenue in Montego Bay. A really beautiful, spacious building - set on a rise, belonging to the National Commercial Bank, one o= f the oldest commercial banks in Jamaica<= /st1:country-region>. It had previously housed the manager of that bank’s Montego Bay Branc= h.

The Red Cross funding only provided for J$300,000 for t= he purchase of a building – Peter Pan Avenue was valued at J$750,000! Wha= t to do? Aha! I thought – Rex James!&nbs= p; This gentleman was Deputy General Manager of the NCB, I had met him during my days in banking. Would he remember me? More import= antly – would he help?

I sat opposite Rex James telling the story of the Women’s Centre from Trafalgar Road expanding out to Mandeville = and Brown’s Town. He listened politely. Then I spoke of 2 Peter Pan Avenue – what a wonderful programme we could run there for the girls and their= babies and we had cash to offer - all of $300,000!

“Three hundred thousand for an eight hundred thou= sand property – that’s what you’re offering – prime land like that,” exploded Mr. James.&nbs= p;

I shuddered but said, “Think of the kudos the NCB= will gain for helping the youth of their Nation this way – Oh what a wond= erful chance for you to really get involved.”

After much of the same, Mr. James shook his head “What’s the matter with me?” he said, “I’m supposed to be a banker!” Needless to say Mr. James responded to the needs of young Jamaicans= and the property was ours. =

After a while, the Montego = Bay Centre came under the watchful eye of a woman totally involved in the upliftment of the young women in her care, Lurline Mitchell. Lurline was in constant pain from a spinal tumor which, although it had been removed, had= left her sometimes, quite incapacitated.

Lurline’s= caring touch helped a little= one who, because of her family’s reaction to her pregnancy, tried to com= mit suicide twice. It was a long labour of love, <= span class=3DSpellE>counselling for the child and her family. Eventually= , this child went on to enter the Sam<= span style=3D'font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Arial'> Sharpe Teacher Training College in Montego= Bay and is now a highly respected member of our teaching profession.

Of the many young men assisted at the Montego Bay Centre was Kevin. Ignori= ng the criminal elements of the community in which he lived, Kevin was determined= to learn and lead a decent life. When he began classes at the Montego Bay Centre he could neither read nor write. He has now progressed to a Grade 6 standard, works in the construction industry but still attends classes encouraging his classmates to follow his example.

In the early 90’s I had a call from George Abraha= ms of J.Wray and Nephew Limited a large company in <= /span>Jamaica<= /st1:country-region> which distributed wines and alcoholic beverages, to say that funds were available from a Trust Fund se= t up by their Company to establish Day Nurseries in Kingston= and Montego= Bay. He said that due to the remarkable success record of the Women’s Centres, t= he Trustees had come to a unanimous decision that the money be given to our <= span class=3DSpellE>programme.

When one good thing happens it seems to set up a chain reaction! Soon, we had the North St. Andrew and the M= ontego Freeport Kiwanians coming in to help. They fund raised and provided Architectural and Construction skills for this Day Nur= sery project free of charge. From all this two additional day nurseries were constructed – one in Kingston and one in Montego= Bay. These two new Day Nurseries= have met the needs of many a working mother unable to find affordable day nurse= ry services elsewhere.

When hurricane Gilbert struck Jamaica<= /st1:country-region> in 1988, the Women’s C= entre programme was operating a small outreach station at = St. Anthony’s Catholic Church Hall in Port Antonio in the north coast Pa= rish of Portland. The rectory was demolished and Father Fitzgerald had to move = into the church hall. He would not hear of our suspending the programme and so, that great gentleman slept and worked in one small room in the chu= rch hall so that the girls and their babies could continue to be accommodated.= But this really pressured us to find a building for ourselves.

On Titchfield Hill in Port = Antonio there stood, side-by-side, two very nice vacant houses owned by the Minist= ry of Justice. We set our sights on the smaller of the two and began negotiations with the Ministry. They let us have the building on lease at a peppercorn rental however we could not move in because the local Lands Department wou= ld not give us the keys. We waited and waited. When I heard that the political affiliation of the proposed new Centre Manager was perhaps the reason for = the procrastination of the Lands Department, we decided to just move in. The padlock on the gate was burst open, new locks were purchased for forced do= ors and we were in!

The then Member of Parliament for the area threatened, “I’m going to have Mrs. McNeil arrested – she’s go= ing to jail for this!” But= that didn’t happen and the remodelling of the= Centre went on apace, classes began and babies slept in their day nursery.

Mrs. Nelly Molloy, veteran teacher eventually took over= the management of Port Antonio Centre. Many, many of the hundreds passing thro= ugh Port Antonio Centre can attest to their Centre Manager’s concern = 211; some of whom were even taken to live in her home, during their time of stress. Two of these young w= omen are worthy of mention.

Patricia’s parents migrated to the USA when she was but a baby. Her father now separated from his= wife took Pat, now aged 8, to live with him in Florida<= /st1:State>. This was the beginning of a nightmare of abuse for the child. When she was just 12 Pat was beaten into unconsciousness – an ambulance was called and she was hospitalized. = The father was arrested, given counselling and did community service. But, this= grudgeful man, blamed Pat for all his “worries= ” – he sent her back to her Grandmother in = Jamaica<= /st1:country-region> but destroyed all her alien registration and travel documents.

= ; &= nbsp; &nb= sp; = ; &= nbsp; &nb= sp;

Pat suffered another setback when she was 14 she became= pregnant. But in truth, perhaps this was the beginning of her good fortune for she c= ame under the care of Nelly Molloy and the Women’s Centre.

Sent to a Kingston High School, Pat passed a total of 8 sub= jects at CXC. The missionary body of the school she attended arranged a scholars= hip for her at their affiliated college in the States.

Pat literally threw herself down on the chair in my off= ice – “Miss Mac – I tired so ‘til,” she said. She had been up and down trying t= o get another passport and a visa – but the problem lay with her previous “Green Card,” destroyed yes – but still recorded at the = US Embassy. We got onto a very = nice lady at the Passport Office who, when she heard Pat’s story, agreed = to help. Pat went down to Immig= ration for the umpteenth time. Meanwhile I spoke to another gem of a person at th= e US Embassy who promised to assist with the cancellation of the old alien registration and the issuance of a student’s visa.=

Pat arrived at college one week late, tired but undefea= ted by life. She will soon be taking her finals as a B.Sc. Nursing graduate.

When Ester, with help from the Port Antonio Centre, completed six subjects at CXC she was faced with an added dilemma when she= was accepted for the College of Agriculture, Science and Education Teacher’s College in Port Antonio.&= nbsp; She lived far away from the College and still had massive financial problems. Nelly Molloy’s home became Ester’s home. Here she was assisted with not only a quiet, comfortable place to study but also with h= er fees and uniform requirements. Ester takes a holiday job each vacation per= iod to help with expenses and will soon be graduating.

The year was now 1991 – probably the most fateful= time in the Women’s Centre Programme’s history.

We certainly had our work cut out for us in 1991 –= ; two Centres were set up in that one year!

The Llandillo property in S= avanna La Mar was being sub-divided and I applied to the Lands Department for a section of the property on which to set up a Centre. To say that the first piece of land we were given was unsuitable would be putting it mildly! We nearly drowned! Even though we= dumped heavy loads of marl on the land, when rain came, the whole place was waterlogged. Added to that we were told that the patro= ns at the adjacent Social Development Agency’s Cultural Centre would be “required” to park in our front yard whenever a “session” was in progress at the Cultural Centre.<= /o:p>

After pleading with everyone concerned the Member of Parliament and the officers from RADA decided to help. They showed us an idyllic setting= on the other side of the property complete with natural pond and a gently sloping hillock on which our Centre could be built. The chicken farm at that Centre w= as the largest one maintained by any Centre and the pond, duly dredged and cleane= d became the site of our first fish farm.

We were blessed with fine women who served at this Cent= re from its inception and, Miss Joyce Bernard, the present Manager, continues= this tradition. A practicing Mini= ster of Religion, she runs both her church and her Centre without either being neglected in any way. Ms. Bernard and her staff are surrounded by poverty.=

The story of Keisha is quit= e a common one.

Keisha and her siblings were foster= ed out from an early age, as their very poor parents could not provide for a fami= ly of ten. Keisha had suffered abuse from her father= and, as happens in so many cases, suffering from low self-esteem and hurt, turn= ed to find love where she could. S= he became pregnant at 14 and entered the Sav̵= 7; La Mar Women’s Centre. The Counsellor at the Centre found another, more caring home for Keisha and began the uphill task of improving her self concept and motivating her tow= ards an academic career – for this was one bright child!

Keisha returned to High School wher= e she dominated the debating and quiz activities. She= also made history by attaining 8 passes in CXC which was the highest ever recor= ded at that school! She will soon graduate from Sam Sharpe’s Teachers= 217; College in Montego Bay, majoring in Language Arts.

To quote Keisha, “I h= ave learned that poverty and disappointments do not deter success, only hard w= ork, self reliance and determination can help one achieve in life. I have developed a positive self concept.”

Can you imagine what an empty, derelict, deserted women’s prison looks like? If you can, you will know why we turned away from the erstwhile concentration= camp at the end of Monk Street in Spanish Town= which was the island’s= old capital, in the Parish of St. Catherine.&= nbsp; However, when one door closes, etc.

Right next door, I was told, was an empty building belo= nging to none other than Guy Morris, not only the owner of the gas station I frequented but a good friend. Guy said yes, he would sell and a= ccept the amount that we had to offer – again, less than the real worth of= the building.

Beryl Weir had done quite well as a Counsellor at Kingston Centre and actually lived in = Spanish Town= . She agreed to take on the j= ob of Centre Manager and we began the remodelling pr= ocess. Again, the surrounding community assisted. The Rotarians of Spanish Town b= uilt a new Day Nursery at the rear of the premises, the Member of Parliament installed Water Tanks and other merchants and business houses also helped.= In no time Spanish Town Centre wa= s up and running. Even the neighbouring area of Rivoli which had a reputation for criminal activity, couldn’t deter us – it was however disturbing to be with the C= entre Manager at a meeting at that Centre while, from a window we could see a gu= nman “cleaning his piece” by discharging his bullets willy nilly into t= he air.

The present Centre Manager, Mrs. N= elma Westcarr continues the good work at the Spanis= h Town Centre in her quiet dedicated fashion – a true C= hristian, she places her students at the forefront of her life. One of her students although experiencing great trauma in her life, recently, went on to gain = eight (8) passes at CXC – this little one is now in College in the United States displaying, we are told, excellent leadership and academic qualitie= s.

It was in the year 1991 that I felt the time had come to take this very sensitive programme, now an islandwide organization, away from the, sometimes, v= ery heavy bureaucratic management of Government to the freer, more manageable = style of a private sector organization. Another factor in my decision to pursue this course was the knowled= ge that international funding was beginning to “dry up” for the <= /span>Caribbean= and as a private company, more avenues to funding lay open.

I approached our Minister the Hon. Portia Simpson with = this idea. To her everlasting credit, Minister did not either laugh me to scorn= or place me in the political “dog house” but began discussing all aspects of this proposal with me. It is rare, indeed I wonder whether it h= as even happened, that a Minister of Government has relinquished control of such a successful programme just for the benefit of t= hat programme. But, Minister Simpson took the proposal to Cabinet and it was agreed that we should become a Limited Liability Compan= y now called, The Women’s Centre of Jamaica Foundation (WCJF). This move h= as allowed us to attract more funding and to act with speed whenever the nece= ssity arose. It was a wise move and has benefited the progr= amme in many ways.

An added bonus for our young men and women has been the Outreach Stations where from Lucea in the Pari= sh of Hanover, through Junction in St. Elizabeth to Jones Town and Half Way Tree= in Kingston out to Morant Bay in the Parish of St. Thomas, the young can access all the aspects of the W= CJF’s programme, without having to pay for the high = cost of transportation to and from a main Women’s Centre.<= /p>

We received tremendous assistance from communities, Government departments and Agencies in the setting up of these Outreach Stations. One of our benefactors comes easily to mind. In the early ‘= ;90’s I had discussions with Father Richard Albert, then parish priest of St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church on <= span style=3D'font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Bay Farm Road in Kingston= 11, a very depressed communi= ty. He was in the process of establishing a multi–faceted education / health facility in his parish.

This wonderful gentleman had no hesitation in offering = us a huge room in that complex providing all utilities free of charge. Needless= to say, this particular Outreach Station at Father Albert’s St. Margaret’s Human Resource Center is almost as large, capacity – wise, as a rural Centre and accommodates 30 – 40 students and their babies at any given time.

When the Jones Town= Baptist Church approached us with the idea = of having an Outreach Station at their church on Pryce Street – you can imagine the = warm feeling of nostalgia which overcame me – back to <= st1:PlaceName>Jones Town= the area which, years ago, h= ad trained me so well for this present task.

* * * * *

Cha= pter 6

AFRI= CA AND THE CARIBBEAN

“I don’t think there will be time, in my life, when memo= ries of Jamaica will disappear from my head. The kind of friendly atmosphere you cr= eated from when we arrived to the day we boarded the plane can never be apprecia= ted in human words alone. It is = the kind of actions that touch the deep spheres of humanity and the human lang= uage miserably failing him to describe and spell that appreciation. In fact the actions were spiritua= l and we lack that spiritual language on this planet Earth.”

So wrote our dear colleague Tufusa (affectionately known as Brother “T”) Chief Education Officer = from Tanzania, on his departure from the study tour of ̵= 6;The Jamaican Women’s Centre Programme’= in March 1988.

Indeed, our association with Africa, beginning with the study to= ur, was to be the most deeply significant of all in the WCJF&= #8217;s history. The feeling at the Airport as the African group arrived was not o= ne of ‘meeting people from abroad’ but of ‘meeting family and friends after a long absence.’ The day after, spent at my home at Woodford, saw the “visitors” stretched out on floors and couch= es – chatting, eating and ‘sleeping-out the jet-lag!’ Beth = Mbaka from Pathfinder, Nairobi and my twelve year old granddaughter, Danya, seeming to be long lost sisters, entwining their hands and arms round one another, completely as o= ne. Elsa Kedroe, Kingston Women’s Centre Man= ager - regaled the company with tales of the ‘darker continent’ of England<= /st1:country-region> (where she worked for 18 yea= rs) and had our guests chuckling with mirth.

In turn Mandisi Vanqa and Miriam Lesolle= from the YWCA in Botswana (soon to be Project Director and Co-= ordinator for the Adolescent Mother programme there) tol= d such stories of their women’s organizations in Botswana and the manner in which they fought for the rights of women – using firmness tinged wi= th diplomacy – even Brother “T” had to smile his approval a= nd enjoined. ‘No wonder t= he Botswanian men call you ladies the velvet bulldozers!’

Our visitors from Africa had heard of the many success stories of the Women’s Centre Programme in Jamaica<= /st1:country-region> and when given the chance by= USAID, to visit and take part in a training programme= with us, they gladly accepted. Africa too has a serious teen pregn= ancy problem!

The training time was taken up with discussions, administerial training and “hands-on” se= ssion with the young mothers. The Africans met with School Principals and Teache= rs, Nurses and Family Planning officials, Ministers of Government and Heads of Women’s organizations here. The cocktail reception put on in their <= span class=3DSpellE>honour was filled with warmth and comradeship and ti= me passed without notice. Broth= er “T” was in his element and his countrywoman Christine Nsekela (soon to be Project Director of the Adolesce= nt Mother Progarmme in Tanzania= ) was called upon repeatedly = to verify his anecdotal African bush stories.

However, when we took the group to visit our beautiful Dunn’s River Falls can you imagine our surprise= when Brother “T” refused to either climb the falls or to swim in the lovely crystal clear waters of Dunn’s River beach. No matter how we pleaded and assured him, he was quite convinced that crocodiles and snakes pervaded the area and so he sat – what a picture he was – in solitary splendor on the beach while we enjoyed the refreshing waters of r= iver and Caribbea= n Sea.

This almost lineal relationship with = Africa began with the Nairobi International Conference for women in 1985. Ostensibly, I was asked by Pathfi= nder to address the parallel NGO meeting at the Kenyatta Conference Centre but an important part of that visit was to meet with age= ncies interested in setting up a Progarmme for Adole= scent Mothers. <= /p>

It was here that I was to meet that exceptional Nigeria= n, Dr. Ayoinde Ajayi.= Lucille Mathurin Mair, our repre= sentative to the United Nations, graciously found funding from UNICEF for me to take= two of the ex-students of our programme as exemplaries. I choose ‘Betty’ and ‘Arlene.’ Their = good looks posed endless problems with the African men. Eventually they went nowhere with= out me and while shopping at the large craft market in Nairobi<= /st1:City>, I saw Betty in difficulties= with one of the stall owners. Has= tening to the spot I was just in time to hear him together with his four brothers arranging for her to meet with his family to discuss marriage!

Trying to think quickly I said, “But you are alre= ady married.” <= /span>

“Oh” he said “ th= at doesn’t present a problem, my wives know that I am looking for a you= nger wife – that is Okay”

“Well” I said “ i= t is not okay for my daughter – we are different in Jamaica<= /st1:country-region> – we only marry once.&= #8221; At that we literally scampered away very glad to have got out of that one.=

While in Nairobi<= /st1:City> I had several meetings with = the YWCA officials, the body that would oversee their new Adolescent Mothers&#= 8217; programme. A lasting friendship blossomed betw= een the recommended Programme Director, Ruth Mathai and myself. Later I was very disturbed to lea= rn that the ruling body of the YWCA had changed and a new President from a differe= nt tribal background was installed. As so often happens, our dear Ruth was put under extreme pressure and had to resign. The new President nominated a young woman from her own tribe who w= as nowhere near Ruth Mathai’s standard. The Pathfinder Fund (the USAID funding agency) would not accept the new nomine= e and so, unfortunately, the Kenyan programme stalle= d. That was until nearly ten years later when I met Angelina = Nandwa.

I was walking the long, long corridor at the Cairo Conference Centre in 1994 to the strains of the victory march from “Aida” (this was played all day, every day during the ICPD Conference – one adjusted to marching daily to the strains of Verdi’s Egyptian Opera!) when interrupting the music, came a call “Aunti= e Pam, Auntie Pam,” I looked around and saw Angelina. Angelina was the Pres= ident of the Kenyan Single Mothers Association and this grassroots, animated, in= spiring young woman was in line to run the Adolescent Mothers’ Programme in Nairobi<= /st1:City>. We had met before at a Berl= in Conference where the German Development Agency (DSE) brought Africa and Jamaica<= /st1:country-region> together to begin the introd= uction to certain African Countries of the Jamaican Women’s Center model.

Again we were able to take along to that Berlin conference an ex-student of = our programme. We never seem to learn from our mistakes – again we chose a very person= able young woman – Miriam. Miriam could not shake off the attention of the delegate from a certain West African country – he turned up everywhe= re. Miriam was as rough as she could be with him and really trounced him. We f= elt that would do it. One evening on reaching back to her room, Miriam found t= he gentleman sprawled on her bed! He had descended the fire escape and entered through the window. Of course Miriam fled. We had no option then but to report his conduct to the Conference officials. He was sent back home.

Angelina was sent to us on funding from Germany in 1999= for 3 months intensive training, She did very well – but on her return to Africa she is experiencing great difficulty with Government officials in t= he setting up of her new programme. Kenya is difficult. But being a wo= man of spirit, little by little she is succeeding.

The two representatives from The Gambia who paid but a = short visit to our programme have made an excellent progress in assisting young mothers in that country to complete their education.

Back home in the Caribbean the Grenada Programme for Adolescent Mothers (PAM) begun in 1995 is going from strength to strength helped by the British Save the Children Fund. On being invited to be the g= uest speaker at their first Graduation exercise, I found that it was an emotion= al moment for me – to see all these beautiful young Grenadian women get= ting on with their education, fulfilling the experience of life on a new level – it was so gratifying.

On to St. Kitts! Senior staff of the Women’s Centre and I decided that Charmaine Gibbs, one of our ex.-students and now in = the 2^nd year of her Bachelor of Education degree course at UWI having graduated fr= om MICO with a teaching diploma, would be the perfect young woman to speak in= St. Kitts for the WCJF.

When Charmaine mounted the = rostrum at the Symposium put on by Rosie Hazelle of the Women’s Affairs Bureau in St. Kitts, I could see from the faces of t= he distinguished members seated on the platform, including the Minister of Education that they were prepared to extend a ‘sympathetic’ he= aring to Ms. Gibbs. As Charmaine spoke those facial expression changed from obvious condescension to keen attention – she held them literally spellbound. Charmaine ende= d by discussing the declining labour market in the Caribbean and said, “If the chance for a better life, or at least a = life with a job that can provide the basic needs is taken away what will happen= to all those so left without work! Women seem to be hardest hit. If opportuni= ty is not given to our women, what will happen to those many lives dependent on = them?

Ladies and gentlemen, no one wants to be poor, all human beings will grab at a chance to survive and escape economic hardship. The choice is ours. Do we now grab the chance to crea= te an opportunity for someone?”

St. Kitts did indeed “grab the chance” and = are operating a very good programme of counselling and care for teen mothers.

We are proud of the international acclaim of our work.<= o:p>

* * * * *

Cha= pter 7

THE YOUNG M= EN

Tony was spreadeagled on the latticework of the back verandah= of Kingston Centre sobbing his heart out. We had been sitting in my office continuing his weekly counseling sessions but as I turned to answer the ‘phone he disappeared.

I thought, “I’ve lost him,” but – this is where he was. I hug= ged him asking “what’s the matter now, Tony?”

“If only there had been someone like you for me to talk to when I was little Miss.” Tony was now 19 years old and for two years had been coming t= o counselling sessions as prescribed by the Court.

I first met To= ny when he was 17 – he had brought his pregnant 13-year-old girlfriend = to the Centre. Tony and Maria lived in an apartment in the inner-city area of Tivoli in Western Kingston. They only had one another. This is why, when we appeared for Tony = in court – Tony was charged with Carnal Abuse - the Judge thought it best to grant a suspended sentence so that Mar= ia would have someone to look after her. Eventually Maria went back to live w= ith her mother in the inner-city area of Arnett Gardens and Tony was now worki= ng on his stepfather’s truck as a sideman.

Young, uneduca= ted men in the inner city, don’t have much luck. We missed Tony and by t= he time we caught up with him he had been arraigned for the capital charge of murder. Tony – a devastatingly handsome youth – had deserted o= ne of his women for another. The abandoned female and her sister vowed to “= ;get ‘im a sentence.” A policeman was shot – two = female witnesses (guess who?) swore that they had seen Tony do it – a gun w= as found – Tony appeared before the Judge.

We got Legal A= id to help him but Tony saying that he needed no lawyer as he was innocent, cond= ucted his own defence. Of course, the verdict was “Guilty as Charged.” The Death Sentence was handed down and we proceeded to petition the Governor General giving all the facts we knew or had been told. In the rev= iew that followed the petition, Tony received a commuted sentence of Life Imprisonment.

Was Tony guilt= y? I can only say that his weakness for the fairer sex seemed to be the root of= his undoing!

We got him mov= ed from St. Catherine District prison to South Camp Road Rehabilitation Centre where he learned to= read and write and sang with the Gospel Choir. He teaches other young prisoners= now. Over the 14 years of his incarceration we have had to provide his needs &#= 8211; soap, power, deodorant, underpants, merinos, sneakers – you name it.= The families might rally round the first year or two but, after that, most of = these young prisoners are usually forgotten.

During the fir= st 20 years of the programme we assisted, counseled = and educated many, many of the young baby fathers. Appearing for= them in court, finding them jobs, upgrading their education and, in all, making th= em better fathers and more responsible spouses.

In 1997, we we= re assisted by USAID to embark on a more formal programm= e for the young men. At an all island Conference for young fathers (the firs= t of its kind in the Caribbean) arranged by the Women’s Centre of Jamaica Foundation we elic= ited the views and aspirations of the young men. Professor Barry Chevannes clev= erly drew out their ideas on many topics.

On the subject= of caring for their “baby mothers” one young man said “You = must keep close to her – this time is very hard for her and she needs you.”

Another “ You must make her feel special even if she lo= ok big and feet swell.” =

In discussing = how to be a good father one youth said “I talk and sing to my youth whil= e he is in his mother’s belly so he will know me and know I love him befo= re he is born – that’s when it should begin.”

That first Conference gave us another insight into the worth of our young people. We = were a little hesitant in taking youths from the inner city areas of Kingston, Spanish Town and Montego Bay to the posh Terra Nova Hotel. We spoke to them on their dress and deportment for function. On the day, there were over 60 young men dressed immaculately, hairstyles perfect, behaviour impeccable. I have no hesitation in saying that had such a Conference been= held in the Metropole of a “Developed” country, most of the youth would have arrived in well-worn jeans and slopp= y, smelly shirts. We have so much to build on in our Caribbean youth –good material that should never be wasted.

Since the cons= ensus coming out of this conference was that the young men wanted “the same things the girls get” we embarked on a structured evening programme at all Centres= which comprised remedial classes, technical drawing, electrical engineering, com= puter studies, Reproductive Health Education and Parenting and Counselling. A male counsellor was employed at each Centre.=

Medical Practitioners like Dr. Winston Davidson have assisted greatly in the area = of Reproductive Health Education. Dr. Davidson who helps at the Kingston Women’s Centre has remarked “The lack of knowledge of these yo= ung men about their sexuality and the male life cycle is appalling. Jamaican g= irls are raised in a more protected, nurtured way than boys. They are taught to= be responsible from an early age, but the boys are left to roam. When they re= ach puberty, many of them are not prepared to deal with all the changes taking place in their bodies. When they get to that stage and they start to produ= ce testosterone, they get a lot more aggressive.”

He went on to = say that we, as a society, needed to channel male aggression into healthier, m= ore positive avenues which will encourage responsibility, self-control and discipline. He also said that the progress of the Jamaican woman can go so= far and no further without the Jamaican male – both are inextricably lin= ked.

I noticed that= one young man attending classes at Kingston Centre walked dragging his right f= oot. His story intrigued me. He worked as an assistant to a Disc Jockey in rura= l St. Andrew. One evening two men were harassing one of the women patrons of the Club. He promptly went to her aid and got the men to leave. Walking home on a lonely road at midnight that night all he heard was “Bang!” and he was thrown= to the ground unconscious. He was found at 6 am the next morning with a bullet = wound to his head. Many operations= could not conceal the deep cavity on his head and face nor mend the torn nerves = that controlled his legs. He told me that he remembered calling out “Jesus” as he fell and, from that, he has given all his spare = time to the church as he feels Jesus saved his life. He writes church music and accomp= anies his singing with his guitar. What affected me deeply was the spirit of this young man – he blamed no o= ne for his misfortune but did all he could to help his fellowman and brighten= the world with his music.

Lest any of th= e old myths about the stereotyped older man impregnating a young woman remain &#= 8211; let me hasten to confirm that the vast majority of the “baby fathers” known to us are not much older than their “baby mothers.” Nearly 8 out= of 10 of the fathers are between 14 and 23 years of age.

We are working= with our young men the best way we know how – with information, education= and motivation towards discipline, proper attitudes and responsibility and = 211; it really pays off. The young men, as all young things do, respond to the = care and attention. They now tota= l over 1000 and are off to a good start which augurs well for their baby mothers = and their babies and for society as a whole.&= nbsp; But this battle for justice for the young has been a long, hard one.

As far back as= the mid-1980’s a committee was convened at the Ministry of Youth – representatives from Government Agencies, the Judiciary, the Police, and N= GO's were mandated to decide on whether the Age of Consent was to be raised fro= m 14 years to 16 years. I was a m= ember of that committee. We took our task very seriously. We agreed unanimously, to advise = that the Age of Consent not be raised at that time due to, what we saw a= s, the gaping inadequacies in the education of our young, the grossly inadequ= ate social environment and the almost total lack of parental responsibility.

Our committee = was subsequently “booted out” and a new, smaller committee formed = whose members were agreeable to the raising of the age of consent from 14 to 16 = years and the new law was passed in Parliament accordingly

Our next step = was the Parliamentary Special Select Committee on Human Resources and Social Development. We did better here. At least, with the backing of Minister K.= D. Knight we managed to get the Age of Consent Law amended to provide Judicia= l Discretion for male offenders 23 years and under.&nb= sp; But this meant, of course, that we had to attend Court regularly to plead for the young men. To be able to assist the distraught parents in th= is way was rewarding. In all ca= ses in which the Centre Managers or myself made an appearance, the young offender received a suspended sentence.

Lest anyone fe= els that this meant that they “got off” let me record a remark mad= e to a young nineteen year old by none other than Chief Justice Lensley Wolff – he said “Don’t go away with the idea that you are freed of all charges – that’s not what a suspended sentence means. It means that for the= next three years you will be on your best behaviour – if you pick up a pin that is not yours you go straight to jail?”

This ‘si= lent threat’ would be sure to act as a deterrent. But, what I admired about Justice= Wolff was his lack of bias for he then turned his attention to the young girl an= d her mother. The young 14-year-old plaintiff (whose mother reported as having h= ad a “miscarriage”) was dressed in a black strapless top with mini-skirt, large gold coloured earrings, neck= lace and bracelets. Justice Wolff admonished the mother for allowing her daught= er to come into a Court of Law dressed that way and ended with “and you wo= nder why your girls get into trouble!”

During many of these Court sessions, one thing that made my heart content was to see, at = the end of the hearing, the parents of both boy and girl coming together and talking, sometimes hugging one another, with relief. In most cases the fam= ilies were neighbours – even friends – n= one of them really wanted the youth sent to prison. I’m not sure that that sentiment applied to the bureaucrats in our society! For in the year of our Lord 2000 we were woken from our vision of a process of socialization of o= ur young men based on information, education and counsel= ling, by the news that Jamaica would be instituting a new Child Care and Protect= ion Act which, if passed, would make it mandatory to report to the police case= s of suspected sexual activity under the age of consent and that this would app= ly even if the information gleaned was privileged or confidential such as in attorney / client or priest/parishioner or doctor/patient, or counselor / client relationship.

The senior sta= ff of the Women’s Centre of Jamaica Foundation went into a huddle and prod= uced a Position Paper on the pros and cons of this “State of the Art̶= 1; process of wreaking vengeance on our young for being so ill informed and in need of social mentoring. When circulated, this attracted wide support from varying sectors in society.

A brief quote = from this paper encapsulates most of what was written “we feel that there= will be definite risks to the young victims (male and female) and to the service practitioners. Therefore careful thought must be given before we embark on= this new departure. We must relate all that we do to the norms in our so= ciety.”

Wise Barry Chevannes wrote in response to our paper “The Law proposes to crimin= alize young men for sexual activity. Consider how many tens of thousand of young criminals this could create, given the = fact that the girls who get pregnant are only a fraction of those sexually acti= ve below the age of consent.”

While veteran journalist, John Maxwell, remarked in his column in the Jamaican Sunday Observer Newspaper. “H= aving failed them, deprived them and corrupted them, we will, by another end-of-= pipe solution, be making criminals of them.”

Before this ne= w Act was even readied for Parliament, word got around that mandatory reporting = would be enforced. Many a misuse o= f a young mother was reported to us.

An example of = this was the manner in which one of our pregnant 13 year old clients was met at= a rural Hospital Ante Natal Clinic by a policeman, who publicly declared “you have no business to be pregnant – I going lock up your pa= rents and your baby father and take you to Court.” The young one, now hysterical, fl= ed in panic running down a steep, stony hill back to the Women’s Centre. S= taff had to call for medical attention for her.

In another rur= al district a young couple was so disturbed by the reported enforcement of th= is Bill that they sought the “services” of a “back-street&#= 8221; abortionist. At the nearby Women’s Centre, staff= are now trying to deal with the result – a young woman who not only will never have another child but who has additional serious medical complicati= ons. The young man is in jail.

In our position paper we had predicted that we would be re-victimizing the victim and that “back street” abortions would increase.

Idly, one even= ing driving home, I wondered what would be my fate if I had reported the Area Leader of the district where I lived, whose baby-mother was an under 16 participant at the Kingston Women’s Centre. I’m sure that the reaction wouldn’t be the usual warm “Hi, Miss Mac.”

I passed this thought by one of the authors of this new Children’s Act – her reply was “well, that’s the Challenge isn’t it?” W= hat a “challenge” to give overworked doctors, nurses, priests, social workers and teachers who have been accustomed to deal and, indeed, to get = their effects on the basis of confidentiality!

I think David’s story will give us some perspective on the plight of our you= ng men.

David, from a = rural St. Andrew district came to our Kingston Centre for help. The story went t= hat the mother of a 14 year old (now pregnant and a client at the Kingston Cen= tre) reported the matter to the police. The girl admitted to having four recent sexual partners. Three of them denied having anything to do with the girl = but one was honest – that one was David. He was locked up and subsequent= ly given bail.

Theresa Bryan,= the Kingston Centre Manager obtained legal aid for David and went to Court with him. The whole story including the girl’s numerous partners was give= n to the lady judge. The Probation report on David was good as were the reports= from his place of work, the Principal of his last school attended and the Centre Manager, Theresa Bryan. The judge to everyone’s = consternation, said that she was revoking David’s bail as she wanted a more detailed Probation Report. As the policemen led him to the van waiting to take him = and others to the Central Kingston Police Station Lock-Up, he clung to Theresa, both of them in tears – Theresa pleading with policemen to care for = him.

I was so angry= at what I considered to be a cruel injustice that I rang chief Justice Wolff.= I related the story – he, of course, defended his colleague as being o= ne of the best on the bench and added that some people (?) in this society think= they can just call and get things done. After that tracing, I still begged him = to assist.

The Probation Report surprisingly, was dispatched very early and one week later David appeared in Court again. The= judge put off the case again ordering a DNA testing to ascertain that David was indeed the father of the girl’s baby. But, at least, David got bail!=

After an interminable length of time, the DNA test results came back – David = was not the father of the child but b= ecause of so much time off the job for Court appearances, etc. – David paid= by losing his job.

We did manage,= at last, to find him employment and also to deal with a little girl too young= to be so promiscuous. Her mothe= r was our greatest problem but after a while we got our effects and the daughter= with a decidedly better view of herself returned to school and is now doing quite well. But – what a struggle!!

* * * * *

Cha= pter 8

MANAGEMENT = MODE

In the early days of the programme= when the Women’s Centres were assigned t= o the Ministry of Youth and Sport, I was told that we had no need of administrat= ive staff as the Ministry would take care of all administrative, personnel and accounting matters.

Taking into consideration the prevailing plight of our bureaucracy, the necessity for accurate financial reporting, especially to foreign Donors, and the need to know at any given time the status of our finances, I decided nonetheless to set up our own simple accounting record= s and other administrative routines.

In the beginning, as a matter of priority we drew up an overall budget for the programme with subsidia= ry budgets for each Centre. A ledger, day book, cash book and petty cash book= were established, personnel files and staff evaluation forms created. Individual student files were int= roduced for case history purposes and a large statistical record book showing deta= ils of each student from intake to - if possible - entry into tertiary educati= on. Centre Managers were required to keep a daily record of all important occurrences in a log book. Teachers were required to submit term work plan= s in line with the Programme Curriculum.=

We set up systems to ensure that each Centre Manager wo= uld really have to manage her own centre. All records especially financial reco= rds, such as students’ transportation allowance, teachers’ hourly records, attendance registers for both staff and students were made out in duplicate with only the original being forwarded for payment to Head Office each month. Funds raised by = each Centre were remitted to Head Office and these funds provided the Petty Cash Floats assigned to the Centre Managers. Reimbursement of these Floats was strictly controlled. Centre Mangers were also provided with a “ProceduresR= 21; manual.

During those early years, my position in all of this was particularly onerous. I was Programme Co-ordinator / Centre Manager for Kingston Centre and, = because of the Ministry’s ruling that we could not hire administrative personnel, I was Administrator and Accountant as well= . We made sure that we operated our= own accounting records and that everything sent to the Ministry was recorded a= nd signed for and this paid off in the end.&= nbsp; To justify this type of internal control here are just two examples= of the derived benefits.

= ;

The Funds allotted to our Programm= e by Sweden were received and disbursed = by the Ministry. In the process of compiling the Financial Report for the Swedish Authority I found a large discrepancy between the total disbursed according to the Ministry and my o= wn records. Not receiving any satisfactory explanation for this inconsistency= I took the issue to the highest authority.&= nbsp; Shortly after, we received a cheque fro= m the Accountant General to cover the discrepancy. Of course, my action had pers= onal repercussions, but, if such a discrepancy had been reported to Sweden it would probably have resul= ted in the closure of that funding and probably of others. As it was, Sweden continued to fund the programme for an unprecedented six years!=

When our Ministry’s accounts were being audited b= y the Auditor General, the Director Finance gave me a call. It appeared that records relating= to transactions by the Ministry on behalf of the Women’s Centre were ei= ther incomplete or missing altogether. I parceled up all my record books and vouchers and took them down to the Ministry, and sat with the Director whi= lst all these documents were copied. The happy result of this kafuffle was tha= t we finally got approval to hire an Accountant / Administrator!

These simple but effective Administrative procedures sufficed until we changed status in 1991 from a Government Department to an independent Foundation. Our = private auditors, for funding agency purposes had always been Lee, Chang and Associates, and when our status changed, Ossie= Lee himself spent long, unpaid hours at the WCJF setting us up on an accounting system which would satisfy both Government and Private Funders. To date, the WCJF has not had even one discrepancy in our funding. We have appeared before the Stand= ing Finance Committee of Parliament year after year to hear – “Women’s Centre you may leave – no queries.”

The Ministry of Finance, obviously confident that the f= unds made available to the WCJF were spent wisely an= d for the benefit of the children in our care, has increased our subvention inli= ne with the increase in our work load each year. This proves that the commitm= ent to sound administrative practice and the courage to maintain a standard of values come what may, eventually produces long term benefits.

During this period I created an Employee’s Manual which covered all personnel issues and administrative practices. A copy of this Manual can be foun= d at each Centre for use by the manger and staff.

Staff of the WCJF have= been fully grounded in a “private-sector” type of approach to their work. A staff member comes to work on the job for his/her full 8 hours. Working standards are maintained = and use of telephone and office equipment is closely monitored. In summary, in the WCJF, you produce or you quit!

* * * * *

Cha= pter 9

<= /p>

CONCLUSION<= o:p>

I’d like to share with you a counseling approach I often used = when endeavouring to inculcate a new, more positive conce= pt of self in our young parents at the Centres.

In asking the group – “where do the majority of Jamaicans originate?”

I get the obvious answer – “Africa!”

I then choose one of the more forceful students and ask her “w= hat type of person would you choose for a slave?”

The answers from her and from the group comes thick and fast – intelligent, tall, strong, healthy, handsome. We then proce= ed to the stories of the infamous Middle Passage where we note that the weake= st die or fling themselves overboard. =

So, we come to the evident conclusion that the human being who stepp= ed off the slave ship onto the shores of Jamaica was the finest and fittest h= uman being to be found anywhere in this world.

Then to the Chinese, Indian and Syrian who also came &#= 8211; all people who in their birth country were very poor. But being people of spirit, not content to sit and bemoan their luck – they struck out f= or a better life for themselves and their families.

Again, people of strength.

The Europeans who came to these shores as overseers and book-keepers – (for, as we know, most of the owners of the plantatio= ns never lived here for long) – were, again people who were not content= with their lot and were spirited and adventurous – good or bad. Then the = young people realise that all this strength, beauty = and spirit is part of their inheritance from their ancestors.

When I end the session with my asking, “who are we?”

I get a resounding answer “we are beautiful, Jama= ican people.” This method is effective mainly because everything said is = the plain truth.

So, when I was invited to speak to the Midwives Associa= tion Annual General Meeting one year, I took with me Laura, an ex-student who w= as now the Caribbean Sales Manager for a large Jamaican Company. Laura litera= lly looked like a million dollars!

When I had finished my talk, one lady in the audience s= tood and said, “but Mrs. McNeil, we would like= to know what you are doing for the poorer girls in our society, not the middl= e and upper class ones like Laura, but the destitute.”

Before I could answer, Laura glided towards the mike and said, “I’ll take this Miss Mac.” In her clear, polished language, = Laura told the story of this little girl left to live with an Aunt, staying in t= he out room, doing all the housework, having few belongings, looking shabby f= or school with her one worn-down pair of shoes. Then of a= n Uncle attempting to rape her and her running to the police station for help. Finally, a poor but nice woman ga= ve her a “kotch.” At 14, she was pregnant= by the next door neighbour and ended up, fortunately = for her, at the Women’s Centre. “That little girl, ladies, was me” Laura ended.

The midwife who had raised the query stood and said rat= her tearfully, “you have answered me – God Bless you darlin’.”

You may be asking whatever happened to Emma, Betty, Arl= ene and Miriam who I’ve mentioned in previous Chapte= rs? I believe I recounted Anna’s story.

Emma is happily married with two daughters and a son &#= 8211; the daughters now both in High School.&nb= sp; Actually the same school to which she returned = after the birth of her first baby. Emma has obtained first and second deg= rees from our University and holds a very senior position in the Government ser= vice.

Betty is interesting.&= nbsp; She, you may remember, had her first child at 12. On returning to s= chool she refused, point blank, to accept any form of contraception. As she put it “that is not = for me anymore Miss, from now on I will concentrate on my studies.”

Although we placed her back in school with trepidation = we were wrong to be fearful – Betty went through both Secondary and Ter= tiary education with no further pregnancies. She is now a practicing Accountant = with a prestigious firm of Auditors, still with only one child.

Then Arlene, admitted to us = in a counseling session, that she had deliberately gotten pregnant in an attemp= t to ward off the sexual advances of her stepfather who, by the way, was a serg= eant of police. Of course, this didn’t stop him nor did our intervention,= so – we contacted the women’s arm of the police force. Whatever t= hey did was effective, Arlene was left in peace. She is abroad now having atta= ined a MBA, a good husband and father for her son - in the form of a policeman!=

Miriam is a Family Planning Counse= llor and is fully occupied giving first hand advice to young people in schools, youth clubs and churches.

I came under fire for many reasons while running this <= span class=3DSpellE>programme. Many were und= erstandable.

There was one issue, which to me and virtually all memb= ers of my staff was clearly not acceptable for very young girls. That was abor= tion. Our critics in this matter – some very learned – said, “= these girls are so young they shouldn’t be made= to go through a pregnancy. Their bodies are not mature enough.” However, in talking to medical practitioners, especially those specializing in obstetrics and gynecology,= I found that there was nothing medically against early pregnancy “as a matter of fact” said one obstetrician “the younger the mother = the easier the pregnancy is provided that the young mother sustains a healthy = diet and lifestyle.”

In counselling sessions wit= h older women I found that many had never gotten over an early abortion. It seemed= to cloud their lives with guilt and a sense of loss that never left them. One= told me that she had a recurring dream in which she saw her aborted baby sittin= g on a cloud crying for her.

We came to the conclusion that if we fed the young women well, assisted with their material, medical and emotional needs it would be best to allow nature to take its course.&= nbsp; If the baby was unwanted we advised adoption as the answer. We developed a list of screened c= ouples who needed to adopt a child. All of these adoptions turned out well – although the list of prospective parents is longer than the number of babies available. In many, many cases= the girl’s mother would in the beginning insist that her daughter’s child to adopted - but when the baby was born there was a complete change = of heart.

We heard “no Miss, stop the adoption, ‘im is mi grandchild” - the love that the baby engenders in the family is a wonderful thing to behold.

Of course, if the young woman does have an abortion and= - that is her choice always - we are still there to counsel her and advise.

Another point here is the noticeable number of “replacement” births we have witnessed. Many girls who suffer a miscarriage turn up pregnant a few months later.

One such young woman was 17 years old when she miscarri= ed. She completed High School and went on to her chosen career of teaching. Near to the end of her first year= at Teacher Training School, she was again pregnant. Mercifully, the Training College principal allowed the young = teacher to repeat her first year after the baby’s birth. She became a valuab= le addition to our teaching profession. I have come to the conclusion that children in our society although sometimes mistimed or unplanned are not, = as a rule, unwanted nor rejected.

Many of our young participants at the Centres across the island are the product of very poor, single parent households or from no household at all. Alice was not the only girl we fou= nd on a dirt floor with her baby!

Some self-styled “gurus” in our society who would have us believe that poverty is “no big thing” and if you really want to you can “rise above it all!”

But the reality is that the evils of poverty – unstable family life, neglect, hunger, sub-stan= dard housing, abuse, illiteracy and even delinquency and crime, are so corrupti= ng to the spirit that only with the assistance of a “champion” can t= he young poor escape to a better plane of existence. That champion could be an extra-ordinarily strong mother or father (or both) or an outside influence strong enough to counteract the negative forces of poverty and give the yo= ung an “alternative.”

We could never, as a nation, continue to waste so many = of our bright young girls to the pattern of repeat pregnancies – to bec= ome old before their time, resigned to the drudgery of poverty.

They represent a huge loss of personal and national potential. Add to this, the plight of their children who, in many cases, b= lamed by their mothers as the cause of all the ills besetting them, are abused a= nd neglected. It is never enoug= h to say “oh - young mothers – yes – put them into Home Econo= mics or Sewing Classes.” This can never be considered as a valid proposit= ion in cases where bright, intelligent, promising teenage girls become pregnant before completing their education.

To those who still cling to the misconception that inte= nse instruction in Reproductive Health and Sex encourages promiscuity in our y= oung, the countless research documents across the world (WHO had 19 in all!) continually point to one of the main causative factors for unwanted teen pregnancies as being the adolescents” ignorance of the= ir sexuality, their reproductive rights, and the purpose of contraceptives. <= o:p>

Instead, research findings have overwhelmingly confirmed that sex / reproductive health education increases the number of adolescen= ts who opt to delay sexual activity or, for the sexually active, practice contraception.

For those who love to trivialize the whole concept of h= uman development by perpetuating the “myth” culture I say – t= here is absolutely no similarity between a young woman and a mule!

Why do some of us continue to promote the idea that sex= is a sinful act which should not be enjoyed? The young will find out for themse= lves that it is a source of joy.

Our teaching methods are still not innovative enough. W= e are not developing Family Life Education Courses which are compatible with the= life style of the majority of our children. The background factors of poverty, = poor and over-crowded housing are essentially ignored.

In order to lift the young and move them spiritually ou= t of the environment in which they have been forced to live we must recognize t= he true face of poverty. The teacher sees the young faces before her, hair ne= at, uniform clean and carefully ironed. What she does not see is the scene in = the one room in which that child lives at 4 o’clock in the morning when the rush= is on to iron each child’s one uniform, washed from the night before ̵= 1; carefully mended by tired fingers so “mi chile<= /span> can look good at school!”

It is that very pride which seeks to put the best forwa= rd which is our greatest ally in the teaching of self worth and value concept= s. Pride is still inherent in our society.&n= bsp; It is there in all our children – all we have to do is grab i= t and bring it out!

I must end with results – what are they?

At the end of Year 2000 at the 7 main Centres and 6 Outreach Stations island wide over 26,000 young women have been assi= sted to regain their self-esteem and to complete their education.

Of these only 1.4% have expe= rienced second pregnancies before completing their schooling. Over 1,000 young “men at risk” have also been either trained, placed in outside training establishments or found employment.

A total of more than 3,000 children 10 –14 years, mostly drop outs, have been either returned to school or sent to other tra= ining institutes while over 600 young men and women have completed skill training courses.

I could go on about with the thousands who received counselling, the Peer Counsello= rs trained, the babies cared for in our nine Day Nurseries - but all this is a matter of record.

Figures given to us by our Registrar General’s Department show that teen pregnancies in Jamaica<= /st1:country-region> have dropped from 31% in 197= 7 to 18.4% in the Year 2000.

The WCJF programmes show cl= early that an enlightened adolescent, motivated to attaining a better quality of= life with the need to achieve something better than the wretched lives which so= many of their parents have had to lead, will choose the right path. Once total development of the individual begins, the commi= tment to education, parental responsibility and good citizenship seems almost automatically to follow.

Without a doubt, the majority of the WCJF participants = would never have been able to return to school without the support of the Centres, and what a loss this would have meant to our Nation! As it is, when our young women go on to further educational institutions or jobs in industry or commerce, they carry with them new attitudes as confident, responsible, disciplined women; and we have been assured by their Headmistresses, Managers and Supervisors that they functi= on as “informal counsellors” within thei= r new circles.

The Women’s Centre Programme= has not achieved its success in isolation. In keeping with deliberate init= ial policies, we have sought and received close co-operation with other Agenci= es of Government and the Private Sector. Without the help of school Principals a= nd Counsellors in finding places in their schools the objectives of the Jamaican Women’s Centre Progr= amme could not have been fulfilled. The support from the Ministry of Education and in particular from Minister Burchell Whiteman has been a source of strength to u= s all.

Right from it’s incept= ion this programme has received support from churc= h men and women of various denominations. I have already mentioned the valuable = input from Monsignor Richard Albert of the Catholic faith. Rev. Renford= Maddix (Baptist) gave quality service as a counsellor at our Kingston Centre – he capture= d the inner spirit of the programme so well in his p= oem which he wrote for the students of the WCJF. This poem is still recited by= our students at various functions.

Rev. Terrence Rose (Methodist) has never wavered in his support of the young women neither has Rev. Cleve Grant (Church of God<= /st1:place>). I wonder, sometimes, how I= would have got through the early years of this endeavour had I not had the wise counsel of Rev. Ashley Smith (United Church). Above all, the friendship, suppor= t and commitment of a Princess Lawes (Seventh Day Adventist) made the job so much less of a burden.

There are so many other men and women of various religi= ons and faiths who have supported the individual Centres<= /span> and lifted the spirit of the programme to a hi= gher level.

Indeed the support of the Churches, Government and Priv= ate Agencies over the years has made all the difference to what might have been just another mediocre experiment.

I feel that some of our critics have consistently faile= d to see that the programmes of the Women’s <= span class=3DSpellE>Centres complete that very necessary component of childhood, that of academic education ensuring that t= he young women grow into responsible, well educated mature adults.

It is this growth to maturity that is the cardinal requ= isite of the Women’s Centre Programme – = for although the academic side of the programme is= there, the family planning input is there – the real essence of the programme is the total development of the young woma= n.

As is the case in many societies, we seem to be wasting= our energies substituting laws for developmental programm= es when we could be using that energy in creating a positive environment wher= e our youth and their children may thrive. Do we forget that youth are the symbol of the renewal of life and s= hould never be measured by a narrow gauge.=

* * * * *

May I share with you a poem written by Gabriella Mistra= l, Poet Laureate of Chile.

We = are guilty of many errors, many faults

But= our worst crime is abandoning the children,

Neglecting the Fountain of life.

Man= y of the things we need can wait.

The= child cannot.

Rig= ht now is the time his bones are being formed,

His= blood is being made and his senses are being developed.

To = him we cannot answer ‘tomorrow’.

His= name is

… ‘TODAY&#= 8217;

* * * * *

Appendix=

<= /p>

PROGRAMME EVALUATION<= /o:p>

&n= bsp;

Dr. Barry Chevannes’ repor= t on the state of Reproductive Health awareness among our young teen mothers probably is the best picture of the inadequacies of our sex education in <= /span>Jam= aica. In Section B of his evaluation of= the Women’s Centre of Jamaica Foundation (WCJF) he wrote, “Prior t= o the pregnancy, there was very little they (teen mothers) were taught about sex, other than that it was ‘bad.’= At school the quality of the little they heard was poor. The girls were the target of two conflicting messages: on the= one hand, that sex was bad, coming from the parents; on the other hand, that s= ex was good, coming from their peers and friends. From all sources, parents, guidan= ce counselors and friends, contraceptives were discussed none at all, or very little. What they heard was certainly inadequate, misleading or wrong, but they did not know it then; = that withdrawal was a safe method, that the condom was a problem in sexual intercourse, that it could fall off and be left inside the woman, that gir= ls were too young to take the pill, that a woman would know that she was preg= nant if a lizard run over her.” Dr. Chevennes wrote this in 1996. Unfortunately, the picture is mor= e or less the same today. So, thi= s is the backdrop – let’s see if, by looking at the various Evaluat= ions and Studies of the WCJF, whether our programmes have been effective.

19= 80 – Evaluation of the Women’s Centre – Dorian L. Powell et= al Commissioned by USAID

This evaluation found that for t= he first 18 months of its existence (April ’78 to December ’79) a total of 234 teen mothers aged 12 – 18 years had received continuing education at the Women’s Centre.&nb= sp; A further 15% had dropped out of the programme= , 6.4% had experienced a second pregnancy and 79% of the total participants = had, to the date of the evaluation, been placed back into an educational institution.

The evaluation concluded that although the curriculum “provides an excellent, well-rounded educati= onal programme, teaching staff are fully trained and very committed and that work in the area of family life and Family Planning education are very commendable; the Women’s Centre should, in future, revert to the original proposal and only take 40 students per session, age range should be limited to 12 – 15 years and students should not be admitted after they had had their babies – only pregnant teens shoul= d be admitted.”

Reasons given for these recommendations were that “adhering to a smaller number would allow = for more effective overall monitoring and provision of services;” “problems were experienced in placing girls over 16 back into school;” “the months before childbirth gives a longer time in = which to counsel and prepare the child towards the development of positive attitudes.”

This critique of our programme was symptomatic of the times in which we l= ived = then and the narrow approach = which was taken by many towards our problems.&n= bsp; In implementing our programme we contin= ued to take the wider approach that we should assist as many young people as poss= ible with the limited resources at hand. That way we stood a chance of making a meaningful impact on a very serious national problem.

19= 82 – Study of “Adolescents’ Views on Their Pregnancy”=

by the Advanced Nursing Unit, UWI (Class of 1981/82)

This study concluded that the yo= ung mothers prior to their acceptance at the Women’s Centre had a knowle= dge of Family Planning but only a small minority used it and that the mass med= ia and school teachers were the most popular sources of information for the y= oung mothers. It also found that = the young women had a desire to please their male partners in sexual matters reflecting, the male dominance in our society. It also noted that even though ma= ny of the young mothers regretted their pregnancy they were still optimistic abo= ut their future and wanted to continue their education. They wanted they said “to be responsible, respected individuals and possibly employed in a profession or skilled occupation.”

19= 89 – “The Effect of Continuing Education on Teenage Childbearing” by Pauline Russell-Brown et al commissioned by The Population = Council, USA<= span style=3D'font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;mso-= bidi-font-style: italic'>

This study used a static-group comparison design for the Kingston pro= gramme and a recent-graduate assessment in Mandeville.

The results of the evaluation we= re “very positive.” While only 15% of the control group returned to school after a first pregnancy, = 55% of the Kingston Centre graduates and 73% of the Mandeville Centre graduates went back into the school system. Salary levels were higher among recent graduates of the Centres than in the control group with graduates rea= ching High School earning the highest salaries.

Regarding repeat pregnancies, the study showed that only 15% of the Kingston Centre and 8% of the Mandeville Centre graduates experienced subsequent pregnancies during a 3-year follow= -up period while the controls, in contrast, experienced a 39% repeat pregnancy= rate during the same period.

This study noted that the Women’s Centre programme had been succes= sful in the other important areas stating “Programme staff attest to the obvious changes in young women wh= o have participated in the classes. The reticence and lethargy seen among groups that have just entered the programme is replaced at the end of the exposure by alertness and optimism. Cent= re graduates themselves attest to this change in their self-image and self-es= teem and their now positive relationships with their parents and the father of = the baby.”

“The = Programme has also gained the respect and trust of the Community and is perceived as useful and necessary in the quest to find solutions.”

“The services are effectiv= e and their cost is sustainable. Furthermore, the education and family planning services for young mothers have the broad support of parents and community.”=

19= 91 – “Teenage Pregnancy in = Jamaica” a Case Study of the WCJF by Pamela McNeil C.D., M.B.E. com= missioned by the Commonwealth Secretariat

This study compared Profiles of 6 young Jamaica women beset with the pro= blem of an early unwanted pregnancy. Three were graduates of a Women’s Centre and 3 did not attend= a Women’s Centre. The st= udy gave full accounts of the young mothers’ lives and noted:

“A common factor recurring throughout these stories shows prec= isely how casual these boy/girl relationships are. Obviously there’s no stabil= ity at all – nothing deep-rooted – no thinking through – no positive decision to have children.”

“Even though the young women may appear to desire a continuati= on of the relationship, certainly the young men have no feeling that they are in= any kind of potentially lasting relationship.”

“In most cases the families of the girls seem to be just tryin= g to exist. The overcrowded home environment, shown in these stories, is bound to affect the family members psychologically and physically and, certainly, this situation conspires ag= ainst a young girl who is moving into her teen years. No privacy – inter family relationships tense and abrasive – no gestures of affection or atten= tion – mothers who head single parent households, too emotionally and physically exhausted at the end of their working day to devote time or ene= rgy to their children. The emoti= onal needs of any child would remain unsatisfied in such a setting.”=

“A common thread appears in the ages of mother and daughter at first pregnancy. The mothers= were also teen mothers. It appear= s, then, that early pregnancy is a norm in the real world in which our participants live. Why then, constantly, throughout the interviews, are we given the impression that everyone connected with these young women – parents, sisters, teache= rs, classmates, neighbours – even the teenag= er herself and her baby father are so “disappointed” at the news that she= is pregnant. Is the pull of the historical and cultural tradition so at variance with the hopes and dreams of the people involved? Does poverty and its attendant so= cial maladies and emotional neglect win out in the end?”

“These Case Studies show that all the players involved are convinced that education is the key to upward mobility. This comes across sharply. Parents are clearly sorry that th= eir girls have to leave school. = Even Baby Fathers, if they are sorry about anything, are sorry that their girl friends have to leave school.”

19= 95 – “Tracer Study ‘95” Pamela McNeil et al Assessor = Mrs. Janet Brown – CCDC, UWI Commissioned b= y the Canadian Children’s Fund of Canada

This study sought to provide information on the current lifestyles of graduates of the Kingston Programme between 1978 and 1990 and the Mandeville C= entre between 1982 and 1990. A tot= al of 126 randomly selected ex-participants were found and interviewed from the = Kingston Centre programme and 54 from Mandeville.<= /o:p>

= In the analysis of the data from this Tracer Study it was concluded that R= 20;in general, the results have been very positive. Out of the relatively small sampl= es we found 10 teachers, 3 nurses, 5 accountants and 2 managers from the = Kin= gston ex-participants and 3 teachers, 2 nurses, 2 managers and 2 police women from the Mandeville sample”

One of the major objectives of t= his study was to provide information on the spacing of subsequent births to the teen mothers. Table 1 “= ;Number of Children per age grouping” “showed 50.7% of the Kin= gston ex-participants still wi= th only one child, 36.5% with 2 and 9% with 3. Birth spacing showed that = Kin= gston ex-participants waited an average of 5½ years, Mandeville ex-participants 3 1/3 years before having a second child.

Probably the most exciting and satisfying feature of this Tracer Study was not only the high level of education among ex-participants, but the educational status of their children<= /i>. All children of school age were attending school with 77% of the 40 children now at secondary level, atten= ding traditional High Schools. Th= ere were 30 female children of the ex-participants now in their teen years non= e of whom had experienced an early pregnancy.

The study concluded “This = is an outstanding example of the success of a motivational = programme highlighting “development through education” and a prime illustration of a social programme extending i= ts positive effect to the next generation.”

19= 96 – A Case Study of the Women’s Centre of Jamaica Foundation by Barbara Barnett et al Commissioned by&nbs= p; Family Health International

=

This Case Study profiled the WCJF’s Programme f= or Adolescent Mothers. It concl= uded “Through its emphasis on education and personal responsibility as a = means to self-sufficiency, participants said that the progr= amme encouraged them to think about their future, helped improve their relation= ship with parents, helped them build strong relationships with their children a= nd prepared them for the difficult dual role of mother and student.”

The Focus Group Discussions were= very interesting and I quote here some of the views given by the participants i= n the discussion groups.

On Early Pregnancy and Reaction of Parents, Community and Men

=

“My mother was very mad, v= ery upset as she is alone and I have no father.”

“My mother always focused = on the negative because she had children young and nothing came out of it.= 221;

“My father wanted me to le= ave the house. He said that I wa= s the one with potential and he spent all his money on me and then I let him down.”

“My mother, she cry. Sh= e invest everything in me and then that happen.”<= o:p>

“The c= ommunity look down on you. The= y say you should stay at the back of the house and sew. They said I had a nerve walking u= p and down displaying my stomach.”

“Before the baby it was li= ke I commit a crime – but, after baby - boom, they love the child and tre= at you much better.”

“People will know me becau= se of my child.”

“For men, the baby mother = is a stigma – they go look for another person to marry.”=

“That not always the case = some baby fathers, ‘big up’ their baby mother – they treat th= em special. But sometimes there’s more than one baby-mother – so who is special?”<= o:p>

On= the Women’s Centre

=

“I got more love at the Ce= ntre, the atmosphere was really warm, more like what = a home should be.”

“They saw us as having potential, not bad but unfortunate. My self-esteem was boosted and I was taught to feel conscious and positive.”

“They really teach us how = to care for the babies, how to be responsible mothers and look forward to bet= ter days – love your child, display positive values to your kid.”<= o:p>

“It helped my parents to support not reject me.”

On Growing up to be a Woman

“My mother just said, ‘now you see your period you can breed’ like she was quarrelling. She said ‘= ;you don’t know what this is?’&nbs= p; I said ‘no’ crying.&nb= sp; She said ‘If you don’t know I can’t tell you̵= 7; but she show me what to use’.”

“I had sex and I did not k= now where his thing was to go.”

“My Aunt said, ‘you = look pregnant. Anybody trouble you?’ I said ‘no.’ I didn’t know what she meant by ‘trouble you’.”

“The Centre taught us to v= alue our body, we need to plan our lives. We were given a number of options= and allowed to make choices.”

“The knowledge on sex and = family planning at the Centre really helped.&nbs= p; Most persons I know from the Centre have not gotten pregnant again = and had a lot of Children they did not plan for.”

On going back to School

=

“The Women’s Centre = staff had so much confidence in us and motivated us that made us want to go back= to school.”

“When I went back to school people saw the difference – I had ambition.”=

“My mother would show my f= ather my school report and he would pretend he was not smiling. Then he’d turn around and s= mile at me. That was the first time = he really smiled at me since I gotten pregnant.

“Some = of the girls at school found = out I had a baby. They marveled at= the experience but were glad I was able to come back to school.”

On= Men

“It was the Women’s Centre that helped me to have a very clear head about how I deal with men – to understand them better – like how they feel, how they thi= nk, how they act. We were taught= to love with your head not your heart and not be fooled by men and their litt= le tricks.”

“I became more prepared to think about what you want out of a relationship. I look for a man who relates well= to my child and has pride in himself.”

“All him want me to do is = stay home and he bring the money. And then when a woman not independent they handle you anyway.”

“You know some guys who ta= lk to you for a while and then want to get sexual – so I tell them ‘= Look, I have a son and I’m not ready for that sort of thing!’ There were times when I felt lone= ly and wanted someone to hug me and so, but then I think ‘next thing the ma= n is gone!’ So if you are n= ot sure that the relationship is going to be long lasting, it’s best to wait.”

19= 96 – The Women’s Centre of = Jamaica Foundation – An Evaluation   Barry Chevannes PH.D, UWI Commissioned by UNICEF/UNFPA

=

The Evaluation compared 232 past clients of the WCJF and 145 non-clients over a wide range of issues.<= /o:p>

In a number of areas both groups= of adolescents were similar – family background with a strong matrifocality, pattern of sexual relations, widespre= ad false or inaccurate beliefs about sex and pregnancy.

The differences between the grou= ps were also marked. Clients of the Centres had a= lower repeat pregnancy rate, they were higher achievers academically, they fetch= ed higher pay and were better qualified, they foun= d jobs at twice the rate of Controls.

There was a distinct difference = in the conjugal pattern – the controls were three times more likely the= n the clients to have formed common law unions.

Baby fathers were on an average,= 6 years older then the girls. = Most were employed, unprepared for the pregnancy but gave moral and material support= to their young baby mother. They maintained a high level of contact with their child.

Mothers of the young women, the report states, were very negative in their reaction to the pregnancy. Too late they realized that they = had invested very little in terms of positive sex education.=

The in-depth interviews, the evaluation reports, strengthened the findings above but they elucidate cer= tain aspects. They portrayed youn= g women whose natural desires were in conflict with the negative ideas transmitted about sex, but who were soon caught up in the excitement of its discovery = an excitement that just as suddenly turned, with pregnancy, to feelings of gu= ilt, shame and aggression.

Dr. Chevannes goes on to say tha= t a supportive and encouraging environment is vital to the restoration of the adolescent mother on the educational track. This is he says, where the Women&= #8217;s Centre has been most successful.

What makes Dr. Chevannes evaluat= ion so important in terms of analyses of social programmes is the Cost Benefit Analysis conducted by Dr. Sanshu<= /span> Handa of the UWI.&n= bsp; It is important for society at large to know that social programmes if administered corre= ctly, are a source of benefit not only to the clientel but to the nation and the society at large.

According to this Cost Benefit Analysis, the success of the WCJF when quantified, results in major saving= s to both family and society. It = goes onto state that the per client benefit from education attributable to the = WCJF is J$127,127 which amounted to a national benefit of J$123,058,940 in 1992= and J$174,163,990 in 1994.

The Analysis adds “the imp= lied savings to the health sector due to the reduction in births in 1993 attrib= uted to the WCJF were J$14,647,536. Overall, for every dollar spent on the WCJF in 1992 the benefit rat= io was 6.4 and in 1993, 6.7.”

19= 99 – Recidivism among Jamaican Teenage Mothers

A Historical Cohort Study ’95-’98 – by Vonna Lou Caleb Drayton   = A Dissertation for the Ph.D. in Public Health – Loma Linda University

=

This study, most decidedly the f= irst population based study of the WCJF, took as its study population adolescent mothers 11-16 years who had a first live birth in 1994 in Kin= gston and St. Andrew, St. Cath= erine and Manchester. A random sample of first live bir= ths to adolescent mothers 12-16 years old was abstracted from the Registrar General’s Birth Registration files and of the chosen 188 – 35%= were found to be WCJF programme participants.<= /o:p>

The results of this very detailed study confirmed that “the WCJF programme= does indeed exert quite a considerable impact on the incidence of repeat pregna= ncy among participants: only 23.5% of all repeat pregnancies in the entire stu= dy population were among programme participants c= ompared with 76.5% among non-participants. The effectiveness of the WCJF programme= in reducing the rate of repeat pregnancies among program= me participants and in improving quality of life indicators, such as educatio= nal attainment, income and employment status has also been amply demonstrated.= The thousands of young Jamaican <= span class=3DGramE>women who have participated in the WCJF programme since its inception in 1978, have benefited similarly.

The study concludes that programme (WCJF) participation reduces crude risk of= repeat pregnancies by 61%.

=

*       *       *       *       *

An abandoned child was left to live with an Aunt in who= se house she was treated as a skivvy, maltreated = and abused. Made pregnant at 14 by the next door neighbou= r she ended up, fortunately for her, at the Women’s Centre where she received an education and was able to rebuild her life. She is now a valued member of the community. This story could be repeated a thousand fold in t= he case histories of the young people, male and female, who have passed throu= gh the Women’s Centre.

‘As My Mo= ther Taught Me’ tells the history and struggles of the Women’s Centre of Jamaica Foundation from inception to its status as a widespread successful organisation. Included are personal stories of the a= uthor and the many girls and families helped to establish worthwhile and success= ful happy lives from the abject poverty which was their lot.=

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The Jamaica= Women’s Centre Story<= o:p>

Pamela McNeil.

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