‘She was my mentor’…Kingston mayor pays tribute to child rights advocate Alison McLean

Nadine Wilson Harris, Staff Reporter

Mayor of Kingston Delroy Williams has credited former head of the Child Development Agency Alison McLean for helping to keep him on the right path during his days as a student at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona.

The entity has since been renamed the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA).

McLean, a well-known child-rights advocate, died on June 1 after ailing for some time.  

She is a former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Entertainment, Gender Affairs and Sport and a former deputy dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, UWI, Mona.

She was also the representative for the UN Women Multi-Country Office for the Caribbean up to the time of her death.

“I was that kind of student, always a little wayward, always doing things, not focusing on your work,” Williams recounted earlier today during a tributes and memories session at the agency’s Duke Street head office.

“She had a lot of confidence in me. She was always encouraging me: ‘Williams, settle down, do your work’,” he said of his former lecturer, who was also his mentor.

Tributes were given in person and via Zoom in honour of McLean, who advocated tirelessly for the rights of the nation’s children.

“Alison is a fearless champion for the vulnerable and the voiceless among us,” said Audrey Budhi, director of the children and family programme at the CPFSA.

“The passion, courage, and dedication she exhibited in her care for the most vulnerable in our society are unmatched,” added chief executive officer of the agency Rosalee Gage-Grey.

“Our several trips across the length and breadth of Jamaica in pursuit of our child-protection goals provided much drama, as more often than not, we would be lost,” she recounted as she documented several of those journeys.

Susan Fraser of the Private Children's Homes Association remembered McLean as a force to be reckoned with who also had a “terrific” sense of humour.

“Even when she was under fire from outside forces, she held her own, kept her head high, with her passion very evident for the children in the care of the Child Development Agency,” she said.

McLean was 59 at the time of her death.

A private remembrance and thanksgiving service will be held tomorrow in her honour.

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