Yahneake Sterling, Staff Reporter

Evangelist Evelyn Mason, executive director of Land of My Birth, goes through documents on Tuesday at the Lockett Avenue, downtown Kingston, offices of the three-month-old non-governmental organisation set up to rehabilitate and reintegrate deportees. - Photo by Yahneake Sterling

At the tender age of 16 and already a teen mother, Evelyn Mason got into a relationship that changed her life forever.

The promising teen, who grew up in the west Kingston community of Denham Town, traded in her law-abiding life when she met, dated and later formed a relationship with a 'gangster' who was a drug dealer.

A few years after the lawless bond was formed, Evelyn and her spouse moved to England, where they continued dealing in illegal drugs.

When her partner was arrested on drug charges and placed in prison, Evelyn took over the 'family business.'

Her luck, however, ended in 1990 when she was arrested for kidnapping. She was deported to the land of her birth, Jamaica, four years later.

Determined to continue on the path she had chosen, Evelyn later took her trade to the United States the very year she unwillingly returned to Jamaica.

Bitter and angry

"I came back here bitter and angry," she told The Gleaner.

Her anger led her to continue dealing drugs, sending several drug mules to the United States with her cargo.

In 1994, immigration charges led to her deportation from the U.S. However, after gaining fraudulent documents affording her re-entry to that country, she continued her 'business'.

Once again her luck fell through and she was caught in Miami, Florida, on drug charges while transporting contraband in 1998.

This was the turning point in her life.

After being sentenced to five and a half years in prison, the reality of her illegal activities hit home and, on bended knees in a Miami prison, she found God.

While in prison, Evelyn, now an evangelist with a purpose, earned a Ph.D. in church ministries.

On her return to Jamaica in 2003, the stigma of being a deportee slapped her in the face but, with determination, she joined Corner-Stone Ministries.

One year later she started her mission to welcome deportees back to their home country.

Rehabilitation for deportees

Today, 50-year-old Evangelist Evelyn Mason is the executive director of the three-month-old non-governmental organisation (NGO) Land of My Birth, set up to rehabilitate and reintegrate depor-tees. The NGO is located at 12-14 Lockett Avenue, downtown Kingston.

"Our objective is to receive persons deported to Jamaica ... provide them with useful informa-tion and contact details on social agencies that may be able to offer assistance as well as steer deportees towards opportunities or activities for sustainable livelihood," Evange-list Mason told The Gleaner.

Since August, the organisation has helped over 120 deportees. The returned citizens are also provided with a warm meal and are assisted with phone calls to contact their family members. This is done through the help of several local churches.

Now a member of Overcomers World Ministries, Evangelist Mason testifies: "God has turned my mess into a message. I am no longer a part of the problem but a part of the solution."

To the criminals, she says, "Crime doesn't pay. It's either you go to prison or you die."

She also invites law-abiding Jamaicans to get involved by offering training, counselling or finances "to assist these persons to get back into society".