Jeremy Mutton, resident manager at the Beaches Boscobel Resort and Golf Club in St. Mary, assists Kemar Facey (left), one of 15 boys enrolled in the hotel's 'Save a Boy Mentorship Programme', to read a book. They are surrounded by some of the other boys in the programme.
-Ian Allen photo
Damion Mitchell, Staff Reporter
IN SEPTEMBER 2003, the Oracabessa Primary School in St. Mary began experiencing high levels of disorder among 16 boys in the lowest grade one stream.
They had very limited attention span, ignored simple instructions, fought, quarrelled and disrupted classes. They were restless.
On numerous occasions, the school had called in the parents of these boys to discuss their behavioural problems but they too were experiencing difficulties with their sons.
So it was back to the drawing board for the school, and a Boys' Day was planned to generate the students' interest in academics and good social skills.
The school contacted Beaches Boscobel Resort and Golf Club, approximatley three kilometres away, to be the main sponsor for Boys' Day but the hotel's management went further than just offering monetary contributions it decided to rescue the 16 boys who were seemingly destined for failure, through a project dubbed the 'Save a Boy Mentorship Programme.'
Each boy was assigned a 'father' who would show genuine interest in his schoolwork and in
his general performance at home, school and in the community until he reaches grade six.
Today, just over one year since the launch of the programme, both the school and the hotel are rejoicing at its success, with four of the 15 boys who had enrolled in the programme advancing to the highest stream in grade two and nine, others to high streams. But unfortunately two boys were unable to advance from the lowest stream.
"Nobody can say I am rotten again," a polite Naquan Simpson, 8, told The Gleaner. He said that only since he has been in the programme has he recognised that he was a very troublesome child but he is now focused on ensuring that he becomes a bank manager.
But many of the mentors have gone beyond the parameters of the programme, taking the boys on visits to Beaches Boscobel, to entertainment and other events.
MAJOR CHALLENGE
For Kemar Facey, the programme represents more than an opportunity to visit his mentor at the hotel. It is through the project that he has learnt to spell Jamaica and even the word community, which was a major challenge for the seven-year-old who wishes to become a soldier.
Slean Harris is Kemar's grade two teacher. "He is a motivation to some boys in my class," she said... his behaviour has changed positively.
At the end of their tenure at Oracabessa Primary, the child attaining the highest mark in the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) will be awarded a full scholarship to a high school.
Jeremy Mutton, resident manager at Beaches Boscobel said his organisation has not regretted its partnership with the school.
"It is really giving them (the boys) the guidance and support that really a man can give," he said adding that some of the exceptional mentors are regular team members on the hotel staff.
Ena Murphy, guidance counsellor at Oracabessa Primary, said she too, was overwhelmed with the programme, "It gives me a feeling of elation to know that there are persons in society who would find time and make the effort to mould these boys," she said, adding that the boys had become a "source of stress for teachers."
