Shelly-Ann Thompson, Freelance Writer
LEFT: Herma Sutherland, founder of the Myrtle Ferguson Skills Training Centre, and also owner of Maxfield Bakery and Pastries. RIGHT: Stephanie Richards, centre manager at the Myrtle Ferguson Skills Training Centre.
A place where young mothers are given a chance through education and skill, to reclaim their self-esteem and independence.
THE INTERIOR walls of the Myrtle Ferguson Skills Training Centre, off Hagley Park Road in St. Andrew, are filled with past students' flyers. The
flyers speak to graduates' preferences in food, colour, and ambition. The profiles also showcase young mothers, who were given a chance through education and skill, to reclaim their self-esteem and independence.
The Myrtle Ferguson Skills Training Centre at 11 Grayden Avenue in St. Andrew is a non-profit organisation which started in 1994 by the Ferguson Family of Kingston. The founder, Herma Sutherland, established it in honour of their mother. The Centre seeks to provide young mothers ages 17 to 25 with life and practical skills that will make them employable citizens.
"Girls can be equipped to have their own income so when the man goes they will be able to be self-reliant and independent," says Mrs. Sutherland.
PERSISTENT, OPTIMISTIC MOTHER
The decision to open the centre came about because of her mother, Mrs. Sutherland said. Their mother, Myrtle Ferguson was a civil servant and their father, a farmer. Mrs. Sutherland notes that though there were difficult times, Myrtle Ferguson was always persistent and optimistic for her four children. Her mother's married sisters emigrated but she stayed. "Mother only had secondary education but her focus was on education - her goal for her children," says Mrs. Sutherland. Mrs. Ferguson, who currently lives in the United States and suffers from Alzheimer's disease, achieved that goal.
Mrs. Sutherland, owner of Maxfield Bakery and Pastries, is sister of Member of Parliament and State Minister for Transport and Works, Fenton Ferguson; as well as Dr. Millicent Comrie, an Obstetrician/Gynaecologist in New York and Pauline Ferron, owner of People's Favourite Bakery in Clarendon.
STRONG PERSON
"My mother was a very strong person and she believed in people. She took in children who needed help - neighbours and church. Every time my brother thought that he was going to have his room for himself, she brought in someone else," recalls Mrs. Sutherland.
All four of Ferguson's children are graduates of Howard University, Washington D.C., in the United States and full-scholarship recipient students of Ardenne High School in St. Andrew.
"I want teenage mothers to be as strong and focussed for their children in the same way that Mamma was for us. Girls who don't have the benefit of such a mother like we had. Girls who need help, need counselling, need care. For the children (the babies) to have someone who can love them. If mother was not the way she was, we would not have had the successes we have."
"Myrtle Ferguson Skills Training Centre is just giving back to community. There are not many families that have all five children benefiting from secondary education. It's nothing to shout about, it's something we have to do," says Mrs. Sutherland.
The centre offers a one-year programme that includes mathematics, english, catering, bakery production, information technology and cosmetology. During the Christmas and Easter holidays, the students are provided with paid work experience at Maxfield Bakery. There is also a nursery for their babies.
THE CENTRE
Stephanie Richards, who has been at the centre for 10 years, notes that the nursery was implemented when they found out that some of the students were absent because they had nobody to care for their babies while they were at school. The nursery has five cribs, a bed, and a bookshelf with reading material.
This term the centre has 22 young girls an increased from 18 of last year's school term. Since 1994, 298 young women have graduated .
For nine years since its inception in 1994 it was an outreach programme of the Women Centre Foundation of Jamaica that also assists young mothers. The Women's Centre provided Myrtle Ferguson with a paid counsellor and a centre manager. The Women's Centre also co-signed on certificates at the end of the programme.
The centre's chief financial aid comes from the Maxfield Bakery and they receive contribution in food from Food For the Poor. The centre also received a grant from the Mama Cash Foundation in the Netherlands to set up the Information Technology programme called "The Women in Technology Programme." The Ferguson siblings and their children contribute their skill to the students occasionally each year.
Within the past 11 years, Mrs. Sutherland notes that there have been many accomplishments. The centre's primary goal of encouraging self-employment and self-motivation for the young mothers is definitely being met. "The good thing about it is that it prepares the girls both ways - they can get a job or they can create their own jobs - to fill areas within cosmetology, catering or bakery," says Mrs. Sutherland.
WORTHWHILE PURPOSE
"If only one girl graduated and did well, the purpose would be worthwhile?The girls keep in touch, some get married or start solid families. Becoming pregnant again is a rare recurrence," continues Mrs. Sutherland.
The centre's next project is to start, by September 2006, an afternoon programme for young fathers. "We need more responsible fathers, it's good to equip girls to take care of their children, but children need both parents. In addition, we don't want to segregate we also want to reach out to the men," says Mrs. Sutherland.
