Prince heads new All-In-One board

But there is one bright spot trying to dig its way through all the darkness – The All-In-One Development Centre at Phase Five, Beetham Gardens – an early childhood care centre for children between three and four years old in the community.

Retired Police Inspector and Public Service Medal of Merit Silver (2011) national awardee, Sheila Prince, intends to change this miasma and make a difference in the lives of the children who live in this depressed area.

Prince was named president of the board of the All-In-One Development Centre just a few weeks ago, but has plans in place where children will be placed first, and where parents will play a more significant role in their children’s lives.

“There is always a need to go beyond the call of duty in a community like that. It is not only about little children who are there, but it is about the little children who cannot even come there. An early foundation is important in an area like that, an environment like that which is considered a hotspot where lawlessness is the game of the day,” Prince said.

She said it was important that the board did what they were supposed to do, by making sure that the children are well nurtured and well groomed in their early childhood education.

“Whether you like it or not, that area is, besides poverty, an area where parenting is not the order of the day. The crime situation would show lawlessness, so I could make a difference in terms of letting the parents know that they are the first example, that they are their children’s mentors and what they instil in the children at this tender age is what the children will become,” Prince, who also heads the Beetham Police Youth Club, said.

“That is what shapes the child and it shapes them for life, so at that tender age what you see and what you hear and what is told to you, that is what would mould you into the child you are supposed to be become at that age. They do what you tell them to do, whatever you tell them to do they do, they don’t query it because they are innocent.”

Prince said Beetham Gardens was breeding too much violence.

“That little area is breeding too much violence, too many bandits, too much lawlessness ... and it’s not Ms Prince saying that, the evidence shows it. That is what they do there, that is their lifestyle, it is a way of life for them. It’s about the guns, it’s about the sex and the drugs, so somebody has to make a difference,” she said.

Prince said parents did not need handouts and they should not expect to be paid to “do the right thing”. She said parents also need to think about their children in a community where many single women had four or five children, most of them for different fathers.

“We need to clean up those parents’ act. How do we clean it up? They are already set in their ways, they are not little children we can mould into knowing right from wrong, but we need to give them some assurance that they have little ones who are looking at them. The little ones who are looking at them and expect that they would do what is right,” she said.

Founder of the school, Wayne Jordan Patrick, said he was desperate for a place to teach his young wards, and broke the lock of the community centre, where the school was now located, to start the institution in 1985. He said he noticed then that there were many young children in the area who were not going to school.

“Knowing where I came from, growing up at St Michael’s (Home For Boys) and seeing that happen, I decided we needed to do something about that,” he said.Patrick’s first school was an old galvanise shed where he and his pupils spent ten years. He had four pupils at the time.

“There was an earthen floor, a galvanise door and we had old boxes for tables and we made things happen. There were primary schools that would throw out things at the end of the term, and we would take those things that they would throw out and make use of it and we just made things work for that ten years,” he said.

Then, after having to deal with a major flood and then the 1990 attempted coup, Patrick was told that they had to vacate the building.

“I was on the verge of closing up because I had nowhere else to go, but I was able to procure a place after a woman I was taking care of was taken to a nursing home by her daughter,” he said.

They had lights, a water cooler, but no water or toilets, and we were able to get chairs and tables through donations

“There are some children who do not get into the system because their parents do not see the need for it, or some parents don’t care, some are laid back and lazy and some parents have too many children to send them to school. Some children can’t come to school because they have no birth certificate, some may have fathers who got killed because of the gang warfare. We provide an education for those children here,” Patrick said.

Principal of the school, Charmaine Anderson, said the 58 pupils came not from Beetham Gardens, but Sea Lots and Laventille Hill. She said the youngsters were just everyday children who need parental guidance to steer them in the right direction.

“They just need somebody to show them love, that they are accepted. That is one of the most important things that they need because sometimes they come from broken homes,” Anderson said.

“Some of them see the mummy and they’re not seeing the father, so with you giving them the love and the nuturing and ‘the yes, they can do something’, you get them to respond because we have success when they go out to the various schools. When they have to do an exam our children are always on top and our children are always accepted.”

The principal said one of the problems they have encountered is the payment of the school fees, which is $200 a term.

“Most of them find it difficult to pay the fees because they have to pay the fees on time, but we are lenient. We give them time where they can pay the fees. Sometimes they feel that we would look down on them or their children if they don’t pay on time. But we have a relationship with the parents, so we’re able to deal with that,” she said.

“In the beginning we had problems with them not having anything to eat at home, so that’s when Mr Jordan introduced the breakfast programme with the food nutrition department, and we were able to get breakfast coming in the morning for the kids. That helped them to come to school more regularly and they were more punctual.”

Prince feels children should not be deprived of an education because they did not have school fees.

“Even though the parents don’t have the money, it doesn’t have to mean that the child must stay at home,” Prince said.

“We have to come up with a strategy ... Scholarships or grants is one of the visions of the board that we would try to get for the children whose parents cannot afford to send them to school. These are the early days of their formation and it’s important that they get this kind of training because it prepares them for elementary school and life beyond.”