The bed sheets were taut and tidy at the St John Bosco Boys’ Home in Hatfield, Manchester. On each pillow was a clean comb, placed at the same angle. Then Sister Susan Frazer took us to the Bosco farm where chickens, goats and pigs were reared and showed us the biogas digester which used animal refuse to manufacture cooking gas and heat for baby chicks and pigs. That was 1989. Since then the school has escalated its activities and in this, its 50th year, has a bustling business in meat products.

After the national uproar over the conditions in some of our children’s homes, it is important that we remember that there are well-run institutions that are lifelines for Jamaica’s children. Certain organisations have all but destroyed the morale of the good men and women in our police force and we should be careful that the competent managers of our homes do not suffer the same fate. Ah, the damage that the well-meaning but misguided can do!

“Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man,” wrote the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore. With God’s encouragement, Sister Susan, fellow Mercy Sister Miriam “Mimi” Krusling and their team of professionals have demonstrated that yes, we can embrace Jamaica’s troubled children and help them to become strong adults. The success of the legendary Alpha Boys’ School, started over 70 years before also by the Sisters of Mercy, inspired the foundation of Bosco.

“It not easy,” my friend Sister Sue is fond of saying in her American-Jamaican accent. But she always says it with a chuckle, the mark of an upbeat spirit who would not have life any other way. Sister has perfected the art of project writing and pavement-pounding, crowned by her ability to deliver even more than her benefactors would have anticipated. Among them are her perennial donors, Butch Hubert of Cincinnati, Ohio,

Ed Werling, Burkettsville, Ohio and Dr Thomas Check of Gwyneed Valley, Pennsylvania.

The Bosco farm, butcher shop and meat-processing plant are models of efficiency, and their customers keep coming back and bringing others. Bosco therefore receives a fraction of what government homes do, but Sister’s initiative ensures that the boys are always provided with a balanced, nutritious diet.

“One of the three major trades taught at Bosco is meat-cutting and processing,” says the Home’s 50th anniversary publication. “The department draws on the animal husbandry programme to provide excellent quality pork, chicken and lamb.” Two pigs from Bodles in the early 80s have now multiplied into over 500 pigs!

While Sister Sue tries not to play favourites, I detect a certain pride in her voice as she speaks of the leadership qualities of St John Bosco graduate Newton Coote, who is manager of the home’s catering department. I remember a delicious “Mississippi Mudcake” baked by a very young Newton many years ago, and as I shook his hand to congratulate him, I noticed that he had lost some of his fingers. Sister explained that he had been a victim of child abuse (too painful for the re-telling) and was taken to the home when he was about 10 years old.

Newton emerged as a disciplined young man, who, after studying at Sister Benedict’s Laws Street Trade Training Centre and completing culinary courses overseas, returned to join Bosco management, conducting training for the hotel, restaurant and the cruise ship industries.

Bosco is home to 160 boys, ranging in age from six to 18 plus, who come from a variety of circumstances including abandonment, homelessness, neglect, abuse and extreme poverty. “While the most important qualification needed for those who wish to help the boys is love, it also takes a healthy dose of structure and discipline,” we are told. “But while this may sound simple, it means loving the boys “as they are” and assisting in moving them to a place where they can achieve the skills needed to eventually become productive citizens.”

Ten male staff members have been strong father figures in the lives of the boys. “They are fathers, friends, disciplinarians, counsellors, mentors, teachers, confidants and so much more,” says Sister Sue. “These “unsung heroes” are the backbone of St John Bosco.”

Although the home is run by Catholic nuns, the various religious backgrounds of the boys are respected. The school conducts “home searches”, a few times a year for boys who are deemed homeless and have had much success in this area. “Many times the families of the boys whom we have found state that they did not know where their child was,” commented Sister Sue, “They were shifted between parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts with little, if any, stable family life.”

The school provides music therapy in the dorms morning and evening “to help reach those boys unable to articulate their particular area of dysfunction and to help with overall depression”. Called “the Mozart Effect”, music is played at a subliminal level for enhanced learning. There are a range of sporting and recreational activities and a Student Council enabling the boys to participate in the management of the school.

The educational programme is at the primary level as most of the boys go to the home unable to read or write. The staff of 10 teachers is dedicated and committed and go far beyond the call of duty with boys who have been expelled or have not attended traditional schools in their communities.

My conversation with Sister Sue turned to the current concerns in the Catholic Church over child abuse issues. “The situation, particularly in the case of proven cover-up, is deplorable and must be addressed.” she says. “These cases are, however, the exception.”

Bosco stays on course, inspired by the words of the founder of the Mercy Sisters, Ireland’s Mother Catherine McAuley: “God has provided the strength and courage we all need to persevere and grow stronger yet.” A beautiful thought for this Holy Season – Happy Easter to all!

lowriechin@aim.com

www.lowrie-chin.blogspot.com