SISTERS Janet and Johan Ferguson have lived through traumatic experiences that started when they were as young as six years old and which resulted in teenage pregnancies and homelessness.

Like it was yesterday, Janet remembers, at that tender age of six, the physical, sexual and emotional abuse she faced in foster care. At 11 years old the sexual assaults were blamed on her — ‘You wanted it’ — and she received beatings for no reason.

“I remember once when I was in Sawyers staying with the first lady and she was teaching me to comb hair, and I couldn’t. She didn’t take it easy on me. She would take off my underwear and, with a leather belt, she would beat me between my foot.”

Janet still has a scar from the teeth mark left after she was bitten by the same foster parent when she complained to her social worker about the abuse.

She moved around a lot from home to home. Frustrated and bewildered, she searched for a home where she felt safe. The naïve teenager sought sanctuary with a fellow schoolmate — a close confidant — in an old house that his mother had abandoned after building a new one in the front of yard. He was only a few years older.

No sooner than she thought herself safe, Janet became pregnant at 14 years. It was time to move again. Desperately in need of somewhere to live, she turned to the one person she felt would help — her mom.

Struggling with her other children and guided by the voices of her friends, her mom decided that her daughter could not stay at home. Janet was left to sleep under a tree.

With tears streaming down her face, Janet shared her disappointment with those who were to care for her.

“Through [because] mi quiet, everybody think that a bad mi bad, but they don’t know how it affect me…mi blame the social worker through mi pregnancy. She cuda try and talk to mi mother on certain levels.”

Without adequate formal education, finding a job proved difficult. Maintaining a child by herself was a real struggle. Fourteen years later, Janet was the mother of a pregnant teen — the same age at which she had become pregnant. Faced with two choices — help her daughter or turn her out like her mom did — Janet chose to stick it out with her daughter.

“If I abandon her, everybody will abandon her,” shares Janet.

Now 34 years old and a proud mom of a high school graduate, Janet encourages other mothers who have teenage daughters who are pregnant to be more supportive of their children.

“Continue to support your daughters. Life doesn’t end with a pregnancy. If you support them, they can make good use and help you, the parent, in the future.”

Meanwhile, Johan, the older sister of Janet, grew up in a nuclear home. Not long after her parents separated, life for Johan took a drastic change for the worst. Johan was adamant about staying with her mom when it was time to be taken into foster care. But life had its challenges so, like Janet, Johan did not finish high school.

In her early 20s, to have a roof over her head Johan was forced to live with her boyfriend, which led to her first encounter with physical abuse. When she left to live with another partner the outcome was the same. This cycle continued for years until Johan had had enough. After her then partner inflicted wounds on her body with a knife during a fight, it was time to try life on her own.

Although Johan braided hair she hated hiding from her landlords. Her lack of a high school education and inconsistent employment made paying rent on her own a struggle. She could not manage. It was time to go home.

Johan and Janet moved into a room provided by their younger brother, Rodwayne, on their father’s land. The 10×10 room was home to five people. The sisters took turns sleeping on the bed or on the lounge chair, which was the only furniture the room could hold.

They did this for years until learning that Food For the Poor (FFP) was providing homes for those in need. The sisters reached out and FFP, in partnership with BOOM Energy Drink, responded.

Each sister was gifted a two-bedroom home on their father’s land that they share with their brother, Rodwayne.

The sisters expressed their thanks for the homes they have received. “We want to say ‘Thank you BOOM and Food for the Poor for doing this for us…this is more than a house to us, and we pray that this continues for years to come,’ ” says Janet.

BOOM is on a mission to build 10 homes for needy Jamaicans for 2022. This is in addition to the 10 homes they built in commemoration of their 10-year anniversary in 2021.