From a seat at her husband's side at the formal opening of Parliament in the Red House, some years ago, Judy Wilson, former wife of Minister of Finance, Selby Wilson (1986-1991), now sits in Woodford Square, directly opposite to the Red House, working with the country's street children.
"The Square is like my second home, everybody knows me now" says Judy, who had always planned on doing volunteer work "at some time in my life, whenever I stopped the business of producing children's garments" says the founder of Rainbow Rescue - A Haven of Hope. "So I asked a few friends to help, they agreed and were just waiting until a charitable cause was identified."
While still pondering the right time, Judy developed a back problem which gave her a chance to reflect and decide to start sooner than later. "It was December 1998, and I thought I would do a lunch for the needy and started to zero in on invitees, remembered reading about 'street children' in the Catholic News, found out that the Credo Centre housed these children in Nelson Street and asked to be allowed to do a Christmas luncheon for the children."
"A lot of the kids were going to families for Christmas and so I couldn't get them until December 27." Today, Judy looks back on that as "a sign. When my mother was alive she had a thanksgiving open house every year on that same day, which was also my grandmother's birthday. People in the area would drop in all day and have something to eat. However, after she died, I stopped doing it."
After the lunch at her home on Beaumont Road, Maraval, Judy started volunteering with Credo "taking the youngsters to the beach and spending a lot of time with them. I realised the children were increasing in numbers; the building was small; and research showed that a lot of the institutions were just taking the street children from point A to point B, with no further development of programmes for transitional living to adulthood."
Judy went into the Ministry of Social Development and got a list of Homes; went on the net and learned what was being done about street children worldwide; wrote to Covenant House in Miami which has 18 branches around the world , from which she received what has become her Bible on the subject: Developing Programmes for Homeless and Runaway Youth and Rights of Passage (developing a transitional living programme for young adults), and decided "this is where we will go that extra mile, calling our programme "The Stepping Stone."
But she also wants to do an Outreach Programme, such as get a vehicle and go onto the Promenade to meet kids, introduce them to the organisation, feed them, clothe them, and organise a drop-in emergency centre. "Apart from helping street children, we are trying to keep kids with their families so that you prevent the street child. In one case, I helped the mother look for the child and put him back in school, with us visiting regularly he is back home and they now know somebody cares."
Realising there was a need for something more than currently exists, Judy purchased six acres of land at "La Jalousie - Maitagua," Upper Bushe Street, San Juan, with her own money, and now sits chomping at the bit, with her working Committee and architectural plans donated by Alvin Dorset Architects Design Associates, waiting for financial help to build the Rainbow Rescue Home for street children. "The building is needed like yesterday as more and more kids are out there on the streets everyday. At this point it is controllable and the kids can be helped, if it is left like Brazil, these kids will become a menace to society."
A successful fundraising brunch last November helped, and a Fun(d) Day is now planned for next Sunday July 9 from 11 am to 5 pm at Kosmos Club on New Street in aid of the Home, with barbecue lunch, live entertainment, games, stalls, and Latin Dancing.
Judy's home has become a haven for three street children because she feels it imperative to work with them until the home is built. And is firm "kids cannot be turned away," and because of her involvement over the past two years at Woodford Square where she spends a lot of time, the park wardens who find kids call her at anytime. "Lots of times I take them to Credo which is run by the Holy Faith Sisters."
But there is a need for immediate accommodation for more than the three at her home and so she is appealing for "a temporary place just for a couple years to house more children, until the Bushe Street residence is ready." Judy can be reached at 622-4784.
"What we do not realise is that we are now surrounded by street children. I took one home until his foot healed, got a job for him, and placed him at the Salvation Army Hostel but he didn't know how to manage his life, money or else. They need to have their hands held in the transitional period."
Deanne Brown, who calls herself "Judy's prayer partner," works with Families In Action. Brown started to do volunteer work with Credo originally, and has worked with street children programmes of the YMCA and Living Water's Marian House. "I used to go around the Promenade picking them up and feeding them on a Tuesday but then Credo took over that function at Duncan Street."
But Deanne continues looking for homes to place children from the street since she also visits at the Youth Training Centre and has experienced the pain of seeing a child coming out with nowhere to go, getting into more trouble and being sent to jail. "If I had my own home, I would be able to watch them and they would not end up in jail. I worked with Panday's adopted son who died when the dump truck ran over him at the Beetham, and all that could have been avoided."
Both Deanne and Judy lament "the current places are not only small but in the city, so there is no space for the children to grow and expand, to play sport, and learn about agriculture. In any case these confined and restricted places were alright when you had just a few street children. Now they are all full, and this is why government has to start putting things in place."
Referring to a mother with eight children, with three boys between 13 and 15 on the street, two others 8 and 9 dirty and hungry at home, and her three daughters at unknown addresses, Judy says "it's all well and good to say we are building homes, but women like that mother need to be educated as we cannot go on taking care of their kids when they leave them. Women must take responsibility for their lives. Long ago we had absentee fathers, now we also have absentee mothers."