THE Women’s Centre of Jamaica Foundation in St Ann, which caters to teenage mothers, recently received a big boost when the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) donated $1.1 million to enhance the learning experience of its clients.

UNICEF provided the support through its Spotlight Initiative, which operates in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sports, and which uses a range of efforts — focused in four parishes — to prevent and reduce family violence, which mostly affects girls and women.

This includes domestic violence, intimate partner violence, child sexual abuse and corporal punishment.

Zoe Simpson, executive director of the Women’s Centre of Jamaica Foundation, said the UNICEF donation was used to purchase devices for students doing exit examinations, for counsellors to facilitate virtual counselling and laptops for managers to work from home.

She said the contribution facilitated smoother assimilation into learning from digital platforms.

“The adolescent mothers were extremely grateful that the counsellors maintained contact with them during the stay-at-home period. The telephone counselling sessions helped to reduce feelings of anxiety and apprehension about the pandemic,” said Simpson as she applauded UNICEF for its donation.

In the meantime, Rackeisha Dunn, a guidance counsellor at the centre, said the donation from UNICEF helped them to operate similar to the formal school system.

“On our own we couldn’t have reached so many students so we are happy that UNICEF provided this avenue so that we can effectively communicate with students. We cannot forget their situation, including the morning sickness.

“I had a student who recently delivered through C-section and that would be really harder for her than the others, so what I would tell her is ‘don’t stress out yourself… try log on and listen to the teachers’,” said Dunn.

The Women’s Centre of Jamaica Foundation provides equal educational access to teenagers who drop out of school due to pregnancy, and since the advent of the novel coronavirus pandemic, classes have been held virtually with learning material delivered across the island to ensure students are not left out.

“We know the situation as most of our girls are from low socio-economic backgrounds and so more than likely sometimes they can’t afford it (data) but they are really trying. My concept is that in every situation [you achieve] what is the best result… so I would say to my girls, ‘we’re in a pandemic and everything has changed but we are going to use our online classes to be effective. We have to last just the same as we cannot be left behind’,” Dunn told the Jamaica Observer.

According to Dunn, the centre has also reached out to the parents of the young mothers in some instances.

“We have adolescent mother’s [whose] parents lost their jobs due to COVID-19…family members who would help support them financially… As a counsellor, I had to watch out for signs of depression and I would also speak with the parents and encourage them as well to minimise the frustration that might in turn affect the adolescent mother and her unborn child,” said Dunn.

Recipients of the technological devices and data plans told the Observer that they were grateful as it filled a gap that is significant to their education.

“The device [I received through UNICEF] helped me a lot because I did not have anything to log on to my classes because the phone was giving problem. Ms Dunn told me she was going to get the assistance for me, and I got it. Now I’m able to do my schoolwork and research,” said one of the teen mothers.