The communities of Springvale, Giblatore and Content in rural St Catherine, once synonymous with high dropout rates in schools, poverty and increasing levels of child labour, are on a steady path to transformation.

This due to the revolutionary work of the St Catherine Community Development Agency (SACDA) through its child development programme.

The programme, which started as a follow-up activity to a summer camp project organised by the Canadian Save the Children Fund, seeks to empower the youth through education and community involvement. Its work has been so significant that the organisation is one of six similar groups that have been nominated for the 2008 Michael Manley Award for Community Self-Reliance.

Since the project's inception in 1994, school dropout levels, which were once considered a plague in the three adjoining communities, have been reduced to almost nil. In 1994, the number of students who moved on to tertiary education from the communities was just two, from a population of more than 5,000 residents, 70 per cent of whom are women and children.

Programme director Nellie Francis-Richards told The Gleaner yesterday that approximately 43 persons from the community have since moved on to post-secondary education.

A significant accomplishment for a community where education was once not considered a priority, Francis-Richards said.

Emphasis on education

"When we started the programme we established a career guidance project, which emphasised heavily on education," she explained.

Francis-Richards said the agricultural focus of the communities often meant that most children, after finishing primary school, rarely attended high school.

She added that another challenge was the fact that many parents were accustomed to taking their children to assist them on the farms, rather than sending them to school. This occurred so often they would go for days, even weeks, without attending classes.

The groups' aim is to work with children to create awareness of their rights, focusing not only on the child's right to quality education but also on his/her protection from abuse and neglect.

The programme director said children are also informed on the crippling effects of child labour and the need for participation in the cultural and social development of their communities.