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Jalawelo Spotlight: Our New Intern!

MEET THE NEWEST MEMBER OF OUR TEAM!

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Joelle is our new intern who helps with program development! Here’s a bit about her:

Quick Facts

  • Name: Joelle Rattray
  • Age: 22
  • Faith: Christianity
  • Country: Jamaica
  • Studied: Anthropology 
  • Dream career field: International development

WHY A CAREER IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT?

Helping out at the Miracle Learning Centre's Christmas Fun Day.

Helping out at the Miracle Learning Centre's Christmas Fun Day.

I grew up in a very safe, sheltered environment. During high school, however, I had an experience that changed things. The incident allowed me to see firsthand the crime that I had so often heard about in the news. I’m grateful to God for letting me escape that scenario mostly unhurt, but it left me wondering about the countless others who hadn’t.

For the first time, I started becoming more interested in the news; watching to see any stories about people who faced similar situations. This woke me up to the realities around me and stirred in me a desire to help those in need. This included not just those hurt by crime, but also those who are suffering from poverty, mental illness, desertion.. the list keeps growing.

 

The desire to help others in a very direct way, along with my love of cultures, is what spurred me into the field of international human development.


WHY JALAWELO?

I was drawn to Jalawelo primarily because they checked all the right boxes for me. I was most impressed that they:

Meeting with 2 former members of our Young Adults Circle program.

Meeting with 2 former members of our Young Adults Circle program.

  • Don’t Have a "Saviour complex"

Jalawelo shies away from taking all the credit for transforming lives. Instead, they believe that much of the power to change a life lies within the person themself. They encourage people to contribute their own ideas and energy towards bettering their own lives. Jalawelo is simply there to help them along.

  • Offer Real, Sustainable Help

I was impressed by their “real help, not handouts” stance. They want to encourage a mentality in others which supports hard work and personal drive, as opposed to expecting things to be handed to them. So, although they offer help, Jalawelo expects individuals to work hard towards meeting their own needs.

  • Have Passion for God

Jalawelo doesn't just offer practical help, but also spiritual help. They understand that people need the life-giving message of the Bible even more than physical necessities. Their faith is what drives everything they do.


HOW HAS IT BEEN WORKING WITH JALAWELO? 

Sharing her own childhood experiences at an I Can Parent meet up.

Sharing her own childhood experiences at an I Can Parent meet up.

It has honestly been an amazing experience!

I love that I’m given diverse, interesting tasks to do each day which I genuinely enjoy doing. It allows me to become more comfortable in areas I didn’t have much practice in before, like public speaking.

Working with Jalawelo, also helps me to work on my people skills. This job is extremely collaborative, so it encourages me to share my ideas as well as be more willing to listen to the ideas of my team members.


WHY SHOULD OTHERS GET INVOLVED?

Unpacking books to be donated to the Maxfield Park Primary School

Unpacking books to be donated to the Maxfield Park Primary School

Volunteering is still a fairly recent thing for me. It has opened my eyes to many of the positives that come with helping people. Volunteering helps me to:

  • Think Outside of Myself

To be frank, I’ve been quite self-centered and lazy for most of my life. So, the idea of willingly spending my time and energy on someone else was faaar from my mind. Volunteering is a great cure for that. It causes you to momentarily focus on someone else’s feelings and needs instead of your own.

  • Make a Direct Impact on a Life

I know that if I help someone, it might have a lasting effect on them. Plus, if a change occurs in someone’s life, it could create a ripple effect. More lives could be touched than you could even begin to imagine.

  • Form Relationships

You get to make connections with persons from all different backgrounds. Humans are humans. You can find a connection with anyone. This might even be the person you help.

Photo credit: Jessica Brown


WANT TO VOLUNTEER ? 

We'd love to have you on our team!

Fill out our volunteer form here!

Or send us an email at contact@jalawelo.org !

Excited to hear from you!

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IRRATIONAL? Common Misconceptions about poverty in Jamaica (Part 1)

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It’s easy for those of us who are not poor  to make pretty big assumptions about people who live in poverty. We question the life choices these individuals make based on how we believe we would respond to their situation. Fair enough. This is human nature - we copy and paste our realities onto those of others despite coming from completely different backgrounds. When we do that, chances are we’ll get it wrong. Sometimes, when we genuinely cannot explain the actions of the poor in a satisfying way, we simply label them as being irrational. But is it wise for us to believe certain behaviors don’t make sense . . . simply because we can’t understand them?

Let us dig deeper.

Focusing on the Jamaican context, let’s explore some potential causes to 3 common behaviors of the poor which others often find baffling.

To be clear, these are not the actions  of every poor Jamaican person. Nor, by any means, an exhaustive explanation of the reasons behind each of these behaviors. They are simply some factors for us to consider when we observe behaviors that we have hard time understanding.  

 

1. Why ‘Waste’ Their Very Limited Money?

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Expensive Funerals, Weaves, Nails, Dances . . . when we see people with very limited resources spend (or “waste”) their money on these items we often scratch our heads. The common thinking is this: If they don’t have enough money to cover their everyday expenses, why not spend the little they have to pay their children’s school fees, for more groceries, or just to save for a rainy day?

Sound argument. Or is it?

It does not take into consideration the psyche of one who is constantly deprived of economic resources. Research has shown that poverty affects the brain in quite a peculiar way. It causes humans to think in a much more short-term manner. There are a number of reasons why this happens. For one, persons who have little are brought up to treasure the present more than the future.  If you really think about it, this makes sense.  Linda Tirado, a woman who has experienced a life of poverty said the following:

“I will never not be poor […] It is not worth it to me to live a bleak life devoid of small pleasures so that one day I can make a single large purchase. I will never have large pleasures to hold on to […] because no matter how responsible you are you will be broke in three days anyway. When you never have enough money it ceases to have meaning.”
— - Linda Tirado

According to this study, wealthier individuals are only slightly more likely to delay gratification that those who are poor. They are possibly able to hold off on certain pleasures in life because, in the meantime, they still enjoy other privileges that keep them comfortable. The truth is, even if more poor people  became future-focused and ready to delay their immediate desires for the sake of reaching their long-term goals, they still have “more pressing short-term needs” which pull at their “limited resources”. So, they are unable to properly save or invest  for the future.

To clarify, this behavior is not unique to Jamaicans; it is also evident in other economically challenged population groups.


What Do You Think?

What do you make of this explanation? And how do you think Jamaicans can help curb this way of thinking? We’d love to hear your feedback! Drop us a line on Twitter or Facebook or leave a comment below!

Want more answers to these kinds of common questions?

Stay tuned for our next blog in this series!

Part 2 tackles the question: “Why Have So Many Children They Can’t Afford?”

 

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JAMAICA’S  PARENTS:  VILLAINS  OR  VICTIMS?

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Understanding the Plight of Parents

The mother who used a machete to beat her “frantic”preteen daughter seemed frustrated as she repeatedly swung the blade unto her terrified child. This occurred last year, although it has only recently gone public as a video of the incident was posted online. In response, the police arrested the mother temporarily  and placed the child with family.  

A VICTIM OF CULTURAL DISCIPLINE?

Such severe discipline is not the norm in Jamaica. And so, the video not only shocked, but disturbed, many Jamaicans. It is true that controlled corporal punishment has been a part of the Jamaican culture. Most individuals, especially from previous generations, can attest to being spanked at some point during their childhood. This type of punishment, however, can easily spiral out of control when a parent is angry or under stress due to daily challenges they face.

ABUSIVE OR EXHAUSTED?

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This may well have been the case with the mother on video. According to sources, she normally does not act like this and is typically seen as the “mother for the community.” Sources suggest that her daughter had behavioural problems, which may have caused the mother to reach a point of exasperation. Parents with high amount of stress often release their anger by beating their offspring. While this does not excuse the response of the mother, it may allow us to understand her more. She, and many others, may not have been equipped to properly deal with the challenges and strains which parenting presents. These issues can affect different types of parents such as those who are  young, single, and/or male in the Jamaican context.

YOUNG PARENTS

Younger parents are often in need of parenting advice and and a way to support themselves financially. Almost 1/4 of all Jamaican girls have at least one child before age 18. Their young age may indicate a greater lack of emotional financial maturity to adequately support a child. In fact, most Jamaican youth work in low-paying and low-skilled jobs. This is likely to put extra strain on young parents across the island.

SINGLE PARENTS

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Large numbers of children in Jamaica are being raised mainly by one parent. Single parents struggle to carry most of the responsibility of parenting on their shoulders. Mothers, in particular, face challenges since Jamaican women are nearly twice as likely to be unemployed as men. Moreover, female headed households are usually larger, which puts greater pressure on already limited resources. Both single men and women are challenged, however, and sometimes do not receive support from their families or communities.

FATHERS

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There is a trend towards a lack of father involvement in Jamaica. Most children aged 3 to 5 years old do not live with their biological fathers. For some fathers who do cohabit with their children, their emotional or psychological involvement with the child is kept at a minimum. This may stem from the cultural expectation of fathers to be mainly the providers, giving them license to neglect their roles as caregivers also. Furthermore, they may even struggle to provide financially as they may not have high levels education. This is because, in Jamaica, more males tend to discontinue school after age 16 than females.

HELPING JAMAICANS PARENT

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These are simply a handful of the issues which confront parents daily in Jamaica. While we must protect the rights of a child, we must not ignore the cries of a parent. Parents may need formal parenting advice  to break away from their own harmful behaviors. It is in meeting the needs of parents, that we can positively impact their children.

Healthier homes create a healthier future generation.

 

Want to Contribute to Healthier Homes?

Support Jalawelo's  I Can Parent Program 

 

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