AS a part of the Office of the Children’s Advocate’s (OCA) drive to celebrate Child Month 2022, which ends today, it has arranged two summits for boys and girls.

The first ‘Real Male Code Summit’ for boys was held at the Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel, in St Andrew on Monday, while the girl’s summit will be staged today.

Approximately 150 boys from 30 schools across the island participated in the summit, with invited motivational speakers.

There was also an emotional ‘Feel Good Corner’ run by the OCA’s SafeSpot team.

SafeSpot is Jamaica’s national child and teen helpline that is operated by the OCA on a 24-hour basis. The primary purpose of this ‘Feel Good Corner’ was for the boys to be sensitised about SafeSpot, to interact with the service, and to be walked through the website and hear about how they can strive to stay emotionally well and get free support on a 24/7 basis, if and when they wish.

The motivational speakers included dancehall artiste Jeffrey Campbell, better known as Agent Sasco; journalist Kirk Wright; recording artiste Queen Ifrica; and Dirk Harrison, former contractor general.

“The day was designed to have broad appeal and to seek to refocus many of our boys around issues of respect to authority, positive social skills, and a healthy outlook as to what a good male looks like. It has not escaped our attention, especially as our children grapple with the increased use of social media and online platforms and, of course, the novel coronavirus pandemic, that children in Jamaica today need multiple avenues of support,” said the OCA.