- Carlington Wilmot/Freelance Photographer
Trishana with Mom Andrea Campbell.
Avia Ustanny, Gleaner Writer
HOW MUCH determination does it take not to become a statistic? And at what age is one too old to cry?
So determined was Andrea Campbell not to join the long lists of life's dropouts that at age 42 she is still attending school, even though the hardship of the experience makes her cry.
In the cold of London, England, far away from her daughter and son, Campbell is just one year away from getting a community development degree. But, on a recent visit home, tears leaked from her eyes as she recounted tales of hunger in the cold.
She is determined, however, to finish the course before she comes home. The struggle has been going on for many years.
Pregnant with daughter Trishana at age 16, Campbell was told by her mother to leave home. Her father, who was told about it, never came to bring her back home. She left her home in Cross Roads, Kingston, to live with the father of her child in Mathews Lane, in downtown Kingston and soon had another child, a son, Jularney.
The Woman's Centre
It was the Women's Centre of Jamaica Foundation, newly-formed 25 years ago, which was responsible for a major change in her life. She benefited from their support and day care facilities when the children were babies. They sent her, for one term, to the Excelsior North Street extension school.
Plus, Andrea was always of a different cast of mind. She never believed what everyone else was telling her, that she would truly come to nothing, because she had become a school dropout. She never believed that she could not provide for her children. She never believed that she needed a man to do any of this.
"It was a struggle. There was no family support, but I decided I would take care of them and also further myself academically," she said.
She first tried to do three subjects (GCEs) at one time, but between getting up before daybreak to get the children to school, and reaching work at seven for a long day of labouring in the Free Zone, she failed every one of them.
She decided then, to do them one at a time and passed them. More courses, more diplomas, qualified her for better jobs as the years went by.
She broke up with her children's father and went back home to her parents, enduring the grumbles of her father and the absence of financial support. But, they still had a roof over their heads.
Andrea Campbell spent 20 years ensuring that her son and daughter had everything they needed and that they completed high school and were employed.
"My main thing was that I wanted my children to graduate," she told Outlook.
For this reason, she worked at every job imaginable. "The only jobs I did not do was security guard."
And, time and time again, it was the Women's Centre which would redirect her life when things got too hard.
First, they invited her in as a member who would be the voice of experience for their girls and also to speak at board level on their behalf. Later, as she matured, she was offered the position of education officer. Now she had good working hours that allowed her to spend more time with her children and also study.
Academically, she started on the road to community development by doing the Family Life Education course at the University School of Continuing Studies. She also did the Diploma in Public Relations at the Jamaica Institute of Management.
After five years with the Women's Centre, she moved on to the National Family Planning Board as a parish liaison officer during which time she was sent abroad on a sponsored programme of training.
Campbell was always attracted to community work and volunteerism. She may, she said, have been influenced by the work of the Women's Centre. She volunteered with organisations in the field of HIV AIDS and later, was employed in the area of behaviour change.
Meanwhile, she was terrified that Trishana would become pregnant before she finished high school. She admits that she may have come on too strong, may have "hit her down" an unnecessary time or two.
When Trishana did become pregnant at age 20 she thought her worse fears had come true.
But, since the birth of her son, Trishana has proved that she is her mother's daughter. Now 25 years old, Trishana told Outlook that she will not be having any more children and she is just as focused as Mom on improving her level of education.
Trishana said that Andrea was a super mom, who always provided every thing they needed for school.
Things
"We always had our own things," she said, noting that they knew it was at a great sacrifice.
Their mother would also ensure that her children worked or volunteered during the summer and in the afternoons when they were not at schools. They also worked, with her encouragement as peer counsellors. She did all this, the daughter says, to keep them off the streets. The exposure was good, she adds.
Her mother also made many sacrifices to send them abroad for vacation to several states in the United States and also to England. She concentrated on them totally until they left high school.
Now that her mother has decided to get her degree, Trishana is 100 per cent behind her.
Efforts
She worries that the current effort is too hard, saying that she hears her Mom's depression when she calls on the phone, but she still admires her for what she is going through and the goals which she is trying to achieve.
Andrea, who intends to work in health promotion, with particular emphasis on HIV AIDS, says that, at Goldsmith University in London, she has been told by her classmates that she is an inspiration.
She does not know yet where the 8,000 pounds sterling will come from to complete her final year which begins soon, but having come this far and through so many trials, she trust that her faith will do the trick.
Trishana yearns for the day when Mom will be back at home.
"She is my friend, I can tell her anything," she told Outlook. She is her mentor too.
