HAVING graduated from Brimmervale High School in St Mary with no academic passes, required for advanced studies or to land a good job, the possibility of learning a skill for free under the National Youth Service (NYS) was enticing for a 21-year-old woman with few options.

A Highgate resident, who requested anonymity, said she signed up at the NYS office in Port Maria, the parish capital, for a chance at qualifying for the job market.

She never envisioned, she said, that she would be participating in what she called a Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) boot camp, left with a medical bill of $380,000 for an injured left foot, and still out of work.

The accident happened last August during the 21-year-old woman’s tour at the NYS training camp in Manchester.

The NYS, though it has offered compensation, insists that the injury was not sustained during training but happened as the 21-year-old jumped from her bunk bed.

Treatment of her injury, a ruptured ligament, began with minor surgery at St Ann’s Bay in the adjoining parish of St Ann.

The fee for the ‘urgent’ final surgery, done at St Joseph’s Hospital in Kingston in March, took six months to amass and cost $330,000.

The Highgate resident is now recuperating, a process which could take more than three months, unable to walk without the use of a crutch.

She is also unable to take up her NYS job placement at St Mary High School and is without a steady source of income.

“I had to borrow $120,000 from the Highgate Credit Union,” said the woman.

With the assiatance of relatives and letters soliciting help from local businesses, she raised enough enough funds to cover the difference.

“Me have to batter through, for me poor. Me have to borrow from the credit union. I have three years to pay $4,300 per month. My mother took out her savings in her bank book and that’s how we find the money,” she said, speaking in a mix of English and Jamaican Patois.

St Mary, a parish of almost 113,000, is fifth in population size and is said to be Jamaica’s poorest parish. The woman says she is still unsure whether NYS, a state run agency that helps to segue students from high school to the job market, will cover her total medical expenses.

“They said that they can’t do nothing more. They sent a letter saying that they will pay $10,000. But I did not sign the paper. I still have it, I never sent it back,” she said.

Rev Adinhair Jones, executive director of the NYS, said however that the youth service was willing to compensate the injured woman for 80 per cent of her medical expenses.

“We have to be guided by two principles: one is what insurance can pay and the other is what we might be able to assist her with above the insurance coverage,” said Jones when contacted by the Sunday Observer.

The complainant, he added, has not responded to letters from the NYS asking for verification of her medical bills.

“She jumped from the bunk and injured herself, and we have always expressed a willingness to assist, but she has certain things to do,” said Jones.

Giving her version of events, the recruit said the incident occurred during sports day at the camp, on August 13.

While preparing for a netball match, she was reprimanded for not acknowledging the presence of a soldier.

“He told me to rotate my arms as fast I could, and after that I did not feel well so I went back to the dorm to lie down,” she said.

According to the trainee, she fell asleep but was frightened awake by a loud knocking on the window by a soldier who questioned why she was not on the field.

“I was frightened and jumped up off the bunk, slid, and fell,” she said.

“When I could not get up, some other girls who were also in the dorm helped me up. I am 200 pounds-plus,” she added.

The military presence at the NYS training camps, which are operated at Cobbla in Manchester and Chestervale in the hills of St Andrew, stems from a cooperation agreement with the JDF.

Similar complaints of extreme discipline have been made of the Chestervale camp.

“The military takes care of our logistics and provides support in terms of order and control,” said Jones. “We do not operate a boot camp,” Jones said emphatically.

The aggrieved NYS trainee and some of her colleagues see it differently.

“The training was rough and we were tired all the time,” said another trainee from St Elizabeth, who also did a month at Cobbla last year.

“I heard about the NYS from some people on a bus one evening, and decided to join,” said the injured trainee, adding that she signed up for the teacher’s aid and food preparation courses, and was expecting a six-month job placement at the end of the programme.

The NYS entry interviews included military personnel, but according to the 21-year-old, there was never any indication that recruits would be subject to such rigorous military discipline.

“In my head I was going to a place with strict rules, but I was not expecting a boot camp,” she said.

The first indication that the training was unlike the regular schoolroom setting was on arrival at the Cobbla Camp. Participants were bussed into the camp and processed parish by parish, she said.

New arrivals had to go through “customs” and the rules of engagement were communicated to the new participants by NYS staff and soldiers.

Recruits were searched, no cell phones were permitted on the compound, and participants advised that they would not be allowed to leave the camp for the duration of their training.

Jones said body searches are conducted on the first day of camp in the presence of police officers, and that participants are asked to declare all their possessions.

Things like cell phones and knives are confiscated.

“We can’t take anything for granted,” said Jones.

“We are living in a violent society and we have to ensure that there are no weapons in the camp.”

The 21-year-old’s ‘boot camp’ initiation was led by a soldier who instructed the group she arrived with, while still on their bus, to ‘put all heads in your lap’.

“A girl held up her head and she was taken out of the bus and told to roll in the marl. When she refused the girl was tripped in the marl and she had to roll in it and then do a lap around the quadrangle,” she said.

Phone calls home were denied to all the new arrivals except those who were parents.

“When we arrived, we were not allowed a call; only persons with children were allowed one call later in the week,” she said.

In the ensuing weeks, camp recruits rose daily at 4:30 am for physical training.

Jogging was mandatory while moving around the compound and anyone found walking could be punished with push-ups, extra laps or anything the soldiers deemed appropriate.

“We had to dress in regular work clothes during the days, but we had to ‘bubble’ (jog) everywhere we go. Even sometimes when we are standing up one place, we have to bubble,” she said.

Said Jones in explanation: “We have a culture where everyone at the camps moves briskly.”

The Highgate resident also claimed that complaints by students were met with more punishment from the soldiers, but Jones said the system allowed for the expulsion of offending JDF personnel from the camp.

“If there is anything (amiss), there is a way of reporting it. There is also a debriefing session at parish level for any participant who might not want to talk during the camp,” he said.

fosterp@jamaicaobserver.com

Next week, Sunday Observer explores the NYS Chestervale Camp.