Barbara Ellington, Lifetsyle Editor
Sandra Fraser, executive director of Upliftment Jamaica
AFTER 14 years of teaching at Kingston College (KC), Sandra Kenton Fraser in 2001, seized the opportunity to try her luck in the New York School system. It was the year of a mass exodus by hundreds of her peers who responded to recruitment drives that saw them going after better paying teaching posts overseas while furthering their education.
But Ms. Fraser had left her two children behind and faced with a rowdy set of mainly disrespectful teens. It did not take her long to decide to return home. "I had a class of mixed race students in the New York Schools Under Review Programme. I taught at Theodore Roosevelt and Evander Childs High Schools. The teens were bad, schools had metal detectors, children carried switchblades and cops patrolled with guns. Kingston College was paradise compared", Ms. Fraser told Flair.
NO REGRETS
Today she is the executive director of a non-profit community organisation Upliftment Jamaica (UJ) in White Horses, St. Thomas (see The Gleaner of Tuesday, January 17) and she has no regrets about returning home.
Ms. Fraser said all seven teachers who left KC for New York stuck together through the abuses hurled at them by the students. Students regularly swore at them addressing them as 'bitch' on many occasions but they responded of to the epithets with pleasantness. "We were given the latitude by school authorities to use some Jamaican teaching methodologies and by so doing we tried to reach them.
But the statuesque Ms. Foster felt the desire to return home and do more for Jamaican children. She had completed her Masters Degree in Urban Policy and Administration and felt that her country needed her more. So in August 2004, she returned home.
The move was discussed with a friend who after listening to her reasons, introduced her to UJ Founder/Chairman Gary Foster. And after meeting with board members, she began working with the organisation in October 2004.
LOVE FOR CHILDREN
A member of the Yallahs community, Ms. Fraser was no stranger to St. Thomas. But she was struck by the large number of children out of school because they had no lunch money, bus fare, school fees, or books. She soon got them off the streets on Fridays between 3:00 - 6:00 p.m. for computer lessons at the UJ centre. And by 2005, there were 250 of them back in schools.
"We assisted them with the tools they needed and we followed up with monthly visits to track their progress." she told Flair.
Fast forward to 2006 and Ms. Fraser is now happy that she returned home. Her own two children continue to do well in school. She's happy that instead of going ahead with plans to bring them to New York, she came home. But best of all, she feels satisfied to be doing something worthwhile. "I think this is it for me' when you're doing something and you don't mind being tired at the end of the day, its says something", she said.
ONLY WOMEN
She leads a team of 10 men but they are not offended by this. They operate as a family; with no set hours the goal is to get the job done. For her part, Ms. Fraser feels that women in St. Thomas can do more to mentor others. "Some of those I speak with still harbour doubts and have to be convinced that they can achieve; that goals are not out of their reach."
Things will improve as all the young people who receive assistance from UJ have to volunteer in the communities for at least five hours every semester. The students have grasped the concept and do coastal cleaning and other activities without being asked.
In the future, Ms. Fraser envisions large groups of young people flocking to White Horses to participate in the programme. "I see the traffic not going to Kingston for educational advancement but coming to St. Thomas from the rest of the island and the region. The cloud of helplessness that hung over the youth would have moved away. The programmes at UJ would have grown and attract investors into programmes that provide employment for the youth.
Ms. Fraser who at one time harboured dreams of entering the police force said she still wants to tackle issues affecting the deportees. She thinks a programme should be set up to monitor them more closely through the provision of health care and jobs. UJ now urgently needs computer software that will make it easy for illiterate adults to learn to read.
Although her hours are long, for her family life remains unaffected because of the strong support of her parents who provide a buffer for her children. They are getting the same foundation I had - grow with charity, and compassion.
