By Petulia Clarke, Staff ReporterNINE OF 18 street boys have successfully completed and graduated from the four-week resocialisation aspect of the Government's Possibility Programme held recently at the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) training centre at Newcastle, St. Andrew.
Chairman of the programme, Dr. Jaslin Salmon, says this will now allow the boys, who "needed greater assistance in adapting to social situations" to be re-integrated into the mainstream programme, and work on skills instead of begging on the streets.
The resocialisation programme is the third part of the Possibility Programme launched last August by Prime Minister PJ Patterson to rescue street children. The Programme is aimed at rescuing boys aged 8-21 from the streets, resocialising them and allowing them to fit comfortably into
society.
An initiative of the Office of the Prime Minister, the Kingston Restoration Company (KRC) and JDF, these groups worked together in conducting the four-week camp at Newcastle.
They will now assess the just concluded programme to plan more camps to help other boys.
Under the programme, the boys were taught Mathematics and English, as well as conflict resolution, literacy, drug abuse, health and family life education.
The four weeks of activities started on November 17 and included sports, overnight camps, visits to the Blue Mountain Peak and Mustard Seed homes, as well as one-on-one-counselling with counsellors.
At their graduation ceremony, held last Friday, valedictorian Robert Joseph spoke of the challenges of the camp, including having to get up in the mornings. He, however, thanked the staff at the camp, members of the JDF and all others for the opportunity to help them change.
JDF reports showed that five of the boys who left did so at the start of the camp and others left at different stages throughout the programme. Two of the first five who left returned and were among the graduates who received special awards at the ceremony.
"We're very elated at the experience," Dr. Salmon said. "Many of the boys still need additional skills and we'll continue to work with them."
He said that those with potential will get all the help they need, and most streetboys in the Corporate Area have integrated themselves in the programme.
This includes the Care Centre and the Skills Training Centre, which are already in operation at Ambrook Lane and Old Hope Road, St. Andrew, respectively. The boys repair shoes, handbags, belts and leather goods at the Skills Training Centre, a business that Dr. Salmon said is flourishing. Items such as bags, coasters and other leather craft are made and sold.
Dr. Salmon said the long term objective is to have all the boys occupied enough to enable them to earn the same rewards that they earn on the streets.
Carmen Lazarus, co-ordinator of the programme, said the task of getting the boys to stay in the centres is daunting, considering they can collect between $500 and $2,000 a day through begging on the street.
The Possibility Programme itself is partly funded by the government to the tune of some $7 million for 2002/2003 with a number of private sector concerns and agencies of foreign governments contributing.
