Montego Bay, St James

After 30 years of preparing at-risk youths for the world of work, the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) in Montego Bay is in danger of having to close its doors because it is unable to meet its monthly $200,000 operating cost.

“We are using this opportunity to solicit help from the public to continue this worthwhile project, as we are faced with the prospect of closing,” said chairperson of the institution’s board, Barbara Smith.

She added that the YWCA was invaluable to the scores of students who had over the years found a second chance for education at its 45 Church Street location. According to Smith, the ‘Y’ – as the non-profit organisation is popularly called – is one of the few places where youngsters who leave the formal high school system without the requisite qualification to further their education or enter the job market, can turn.

“Once they leave high school, they have to go to a community college or to HEART Trust, and many of them leave school without the qualification needed to go into those schools. This gives them a second chance,” she said.

The school, Smith noted, runs on financial assistance from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Uplifting Adolescents Programme (UAP). But she said that the money, which originally covered the salaries of three of the five teachers on staff, has been greatly reduced.

“Since the beginning of this year, funding has been reduced and irregular. We have had to discontinue two of the practical areas – Food Preparation and Clothing and Textiles,” she told the Observer West.

The situation is made worse by the inability of students from poor, rural communities in the parish to pay the annual $10,000 school fee, according Rosmin Spence, co-ordinator of the ‘Y’.

She added that while teachers were having to cope with a reduction in the salaries they originally agreed to work for, it is the 44 students – 14 girls and 30 boys – at the institution who are the true victims of the cutback. Spence noted that the area of food preparation had allowed many of the students, especially the boys, to get jobs in hotels on the North Coast on leaving the ‘Y’.

Meanwhile, she echoed Smith’s praise of operations at the YWCA, noting that it has been beneficial to hordes of youngsters, many of whom had dropped out of the formal education system because of poor grades and behavioural problems.

“Young people finding themselves in trouble need institutions to help them,” said Spence. “This is the service that the ‘Y’ provides.”

At present five members of staff teach numeracy, literacy, cooking, cosmetology and art and craft at the institution. Spence noted that since her two years as co-ordinator, five students had returned to the mainstream education system, while another five had taken the HEART Trust/NTA entry test. Two of that number were successful, while the remaining three await their results.

“If we get support we will be able to fit these students back into society,” she said. “They do deserve a second chance.”