McGowan-Arscott

Since 1998, the Jamaica United Relief Association (JURA), a voluntary organisation, has teamed with local civic bodies, churches and government agencies, to offer passport renewals, citizenship and voter-registration services to displaced farm workers in Florida.

"We started out as volunteers, with lawyers giving help in the areas of conveyance, probate and family matters," JURA member Vonnie McGowan-Arscott says.

The group draws on the resources of local, and Jamaica-based lawyers, as well as representatives from Jamaica's Administrator General's Department, while the Registrar General Department (RGD) assists with accessing birth certificates.

The early team included local Florida attorneys Kirk Barrow and Junior Farquharson. Paula D'Aguilar, David Rowe and immigration attorney Roger Bernstein have been involved since last year.

others ready to serve

Former deputy administrator general of Jamaica, Dawnette Craig, lawyers Keste Miller, Ingrid Cole and Ava Dean Martin have also offered their services.

"We would do five or six cities every now and again. Each city would hear about the group and then call about cases," McGowan-Arscott says.

She has recently taken on the plight of a group of Jamaican farm workers living in desperate conditions in Belle Glade, South Florida. Aldith Spencer, a concerned Florida resident, initiated the meetings.

"They were there for a couple of years not knowing how to get some guidance. I heard about the passport drive and told them where the meeting was to be held. After meeting them, the group saw they really needed help," recounts Spencer.

She says McGowan-Arscott took the initiative further, pushing for assistance and catering to even their personal needs.

"From they hear she coming, they camp out at the shop from early. She used her car, paid for everything herself and brought clothes, food, and water with every trip. Then she got a few more volunteers and they go once a month," Spencer says.

the local team

Jennifer Clough, Beverly Lyn Quee, Winnifred Chipiro, Dahlia Francis, Anneice Bennett Coulton, Eunice Beswick, Aldith Spencer, and photographer Courtney Harriott, are all part of the local team.

"From the sessions with the church-outreach group, and lawyers offering free help, the needs became evident. They were a community really reaching out. At first, we were in contact with 50 of the displaced farm workers, now the figure has grown to over 500," McGowan-Arscott says.

The workers' basic needs are for identification documents, including passports, birth certificates and other documents.

"Most are not in possession of current IDs, everything has expired and they are unable to renew because they need assistance. Some are only functionally literate.

their ids

"The youngest in one group is 41 years old, while the oldest is 79 years. They'll turn up with a little envelope with the contents hardly decipherable, and that's all the ID they have.

"With RGD's assistance, we have now acquired upwards of 50 birth certificates, and we are in the process of getting passports for others. Last week, another 40 were processed.

"The process is tedious, as many of the documents presented are undecipherable. Birth certificates, some state IDs given to those who applied through one immigration programme are long expired. Some were taken away.

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