THE EDITOR, Sir:
AS A volunteer of the National Children's Home of Jamaica, I write with a mixture of anger and contempt for the current Government's handling of Children's Services matters.
With all this furore about the mismanagement of children's homes one would have thought there would have been a drastic change or difference in the funding they are providing to children's homes, considering that the current subvention for each child is $1,200 per month. This $1,200 is expected to cover lunch for approximately 21 to 24 school days in a month and also cover the cost of breakfast and dinner! It is worthwhile to note that most children's home in this country are 'surviving' because of the kindness of the private sector, service clubs, the Church and ordinary good Samaritans, both locally and overseas.
It is about time that this Government puts its money where its mouth is - namely increase in the funding provided to the homes for each child.
Additional funding is needed for an increase in salary for care-givers employed by these homes. Is it too much to ask for funding for training of these practical helpers? Or is this money better spent on paying the Ambassador for Children, whose job function we are still trying to understand?
It would also assist the morale of the social workers and care-givers to have the head of the Child's Development Agency visit each home to pinpoint exactly which ones are experiencing problems in offering proper care to children. It is simply an injustice to appear in the media blasting all care-givers and administrators of the homes without doing one's own personal investigation. The current system seems to be, when there is a problem, rename an institution. Hence the name-change of the Children's Services Division. Are we to be led to believing that this solves our problems?
Could we also see an increase in volunteering in the upliftment of our youth? Perhaps there could be more volunteers as mentors, teachers, trainers of care-givers and volunteers in practical areas e.g. the construction of proper fences/ and repairing fixtures within these homes.
Let us spend more time thinking of how we can assist rather than ride on the bandwagon of tearing down the morale of those who are doing the best they can with the challenges of poor funding.
I am, etc.,
MARVA BROWN
marvellous5@hotmail.com
Via Go-Jamaica
