CHILD rights advocate Betty Ann Blaine, who died on Monday, May 13, is being hailed by those who knew and respected her as an inspirational leader and role model who has left a legacy of championing the rights of Jamaican children.

True to her character, Blaine, who was 75 years old, continued her unrelenting fight for the rights of children even as she struggled with a prolonged illness — confident in the power she had to influence others to take up the mantle and carry on her advocacy for Jamaica’s youth.

Her daughter, Dr Tarika Barrett, said she understood her mother’s role as being critical as a voice for the voiceless, and illness did not snuff out this fire in her.

“I think that even as she grappled with her own illness she never wanted to let up in terms of being that voice because she understood that it was, yes, her voice, but the fact that she was raising a set of issues that she knew other folks would take the mantle, that there were young people hearing her, seeing what she’s doing, people among society who know also that they have to step up,” Dr Barrett told the Jamaica Observer on Monday.

“She understood that being a role model, doing things, having people see you do these things, can be transformational. So I think that even when her struggles were real she always knew the power of her voice and influence, and that is something that she would never have diminished, even when it was hard,” she said.

Dr Barrett, who has a PhD in Education, said her mother was exceptional in so many ways, not just as a national figure but also as a mom and grandmother who had faced her own struggles, yet achieved tremendous success.

“She remains such an inspiration for me and the work that I do every day because she was the first in our family to actually go to college and to get a graduate degree. And so she instilled in me, and in my sister, very early, the power of mentorship, and the importance of fighting for equity and, frankly, making change — and education was everything for her. But it went further than that, she not only believed in education, but also felt that we should understand that we could always go into spaces and see the type of work that was necessary but wasn’t happening and believe that we could be the change we wanted to see,” she said.

In a joint statement issued on Monday afternoon by Blaine’s family; Hear the Children’s Cry, an advocacy agency for children which she founded in 2002; and a former colleague at City and Guilds Representative’s Jamaican office, praised Blaine as Jamaica’s leading advocate and activist for the welfare of children and their families, and for the eradication of poverty.

“Jamaica’s children have lost one of their most heroic and dedicated advocates, and the country, a dedicated, multifaceted developmental giant, Betty Ann Blaine,” the statement read.

The statement also revealed that Blaine, during her illness, worked tirelessly on WhatsApp to continue her advocacy.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, in a post on the social media platform
X, said “Betty Ann’s passion and commitment have touched countless lives and her legacy will continue to inspire us to create a better Jamaica for all.”

Opposition Leader Mark Golding also paid tribute to Blaine, saying that her “unwavering dedication to the welfare of our children is a testament to her boundless compassion and energy. Her legacy will continue to inspire us to create a better Jamaica for all”.

Chief executive officer of Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA), Laurette Adams-Thomas, told the Observer that she was “deeply saddened” at Blaine’s passing.

She described Blaine as a “child protection stalwart with a warm, yet indomitable spirit” who has left a legacy of championing the rights of Jamaican children that will not soon be forgotten.

She said Blaine was a long-standing partner of the agency through their joint participation in the Ananda Alert System, noting that Blaine, through Hear the Children’s Cry, was integral in the renaming of the Ananda Alert System from its former name, the Red Alert System. She also influenced policy changes which resulted in the wait time to report a child going missing moving from 24 hours to an immediate report.

Adams-Thomas said that through Blaine’s dedication to protecting the nation’s children, Hear the Children’s Cry became an integral part of the system by providing psycho-emotional intervention to children who had gone missing as well as to their families.

She said Blaine also served as a member of the CPFSA’s Advisory Board for multiple terms, contributing to the development of the agency during her tenure.

In her tribute, Children’s Advocate Diahann Gordon Harrison said Blaine had long been in the fight in terms of talking about issues in relation to children, and toiling in the field.

“We also want to express our condolences to Hear the Children’s Cry, her work family who I know must miss her and who have to now deal with this particular void that her loss has created. May her soul rest in peace and may the issues that she long cared about be the issues that we continue to coalesce around as a part of her memory,” she said.

For Senior Superintendent of Police Maldria Jones-Williams, commanding officer of Centre for Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse, Blaine was a “phenomenal individual”.

“[She will be remembered for] championing the rights of our children and advocating for, among other things, their safety and protection. She will be missed and we mourn her passing,” she said.

Blaine’s sojourn into advocacy began when she helped to keep the doors of the Voluntary Organisation for the Upliftment of Children open through a major fund-raising activity.

According to Monday’s joint press release, Blaine’s body of work also included more than 30 years as an academic and a developmental specialist, “a dynamic leader in the Jamaican Non-Governmental Organisation community, and in the call for honesty, accountability and transparency in national affairs”.

Apart from Hear The Children’s Cry, Blaine was also the founder of Youth Opportunities Unlimited which provides urgently needed support for inner-city children, adolescents and their families.

Blaine also served as the pioneering holistic child development coordinator at Caribbean Graduate School of Theology in Kingston, and hosted two former weekday morning radio talk shows, On The Agenda and Blaine and Crawford on Nationwide News Network.

Additionally she wrote a weekly column, Heart to Heart, for the Observer.

She also served as a university lecturer in Southern African and black American history at The University of the West Indies, and was a leading spokesperson in the Jamaican Anti-Apartheid Movement.

In addition to her child advocacy, she ventured into entrepreneurship, launching several businesses, the best-known being The Fish Place restaurant in St Andrew.

She was also the convenor of a third political party in Jamaica, New Nation Coalition in 2010. Prior to that, she had also served as vice-president of the United People’s Party headed by Antonnette Haughton-Cardenas.

Blaine was born in Kingston and raised in Harbour View. She attended Excelsior High School and gained her bachelor of arts degree from Hunter College and her masters from Columbia University.

Blaine had another daughter, Monifa Barrett, and was grandmother of four children and great-grandmother to one.