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March 4, 2009
Jamalco Mentorship Programme Providing Guidance and Support for Students
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An initiative to launch a programme to provide guidance, support and leadership to at-risk students at the Vere Technical High School in Clarendon is coming in for praise from the Children’s Services Division, Ministry of Health.
Children’s Officer, Children’s Services Division, Clarendon Tameka Casanova, has commended mid-island Bauxite/Alumina Company Jamalco for spearheading a mentorship programme at the school last October.
Ms. Casanova, who has primary responsibility for foster care, said such a programme is timely, given the lack of good role models in the society.
The Children’s Officer was addressing members of the Excellence Club at the school on Thursday, February 12 during Foster Care Week. The Excellence Club is a part of the mentorship programme and provides a platform for the social and academic advancement of mentees at the school.
To the mentors engaged in the Jamalco Mentorship Programme, the Children’s Officer said “You must act as parents to the participants” and emphasized that the nurturing role was a critical one that should be taken seriously.
Jamalco mentors assist their mentees to excel academically, to improve their discipline and expand their interests through participation in extra-curricular activities. The Excellence Club facilitates one-on-one interface between mentors and mentees and promotes enriching group activities.
Turning her attention to the matter of abuse, she encouraged the student body to swiftly report any known cases of neglect, physical, emotional or mental abuse to the 1888 PROTECT Toll Free Line. She also noted that the Child Care & Protection Agency receives all complaints and has a procedure for handling them.
Ms. Casanova pointed out that the Children’s Agency believes in family integration therefore its priority is to keep children in foster care or have them legally adopted rather than having them placed in an institutional environment.
In spreading the wider message for families to adopt or foster a child, Ms. Casanova explained that fostering involves offering a home and support to a child who is not the parent’s biological offspring and this could be either short or long term. Adoption, on the other hand, includes transferring all parental obligations and responsibilities for the child to the new parent or parents.
The agency also manages a mediation programme to assist parents and children.
The Excellence Club members also engaged in role play depicting a dysfunctional abusive family the ideal loving family under the theme “The family that prays together stays together.
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