By Trudy Simpson,
Staff Reporter
SHARON BAILEY wants to be a criminal lawyer.
That dream has remained constant for the former ward of the state, despite efforts by her mother to dissuade her from what, she said, was a dangerous career.
Later, law languished in 12-year-old Sharon's mind as she battled low self-esteem brought on by the reality of being poor compared to her classmates at a prominent high school.
"My only problem has been finance. When I went to high school it made me realise how poor I was and I couldn't handle it. I saw the differences between me and the other people at school. They knew things that I never even dreamt existed. I felt like I was nothing. I was worthless. It took me a while to realise that money wasn't everything," she said.
The career even beckoned while depression, alcohol and cigarette smoking became her best friends at 13, resulting in battles with her frightened and confused mother until the Family Court was asked to intervene and Sharon agreed to become a ward of the state rather than return home.
Later, Sharon's dream helped to nurse her through a suicide attempt, which saw her hospitalised for taking pills and through three weeks of counselling at the psychiatric unit at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI).
Now, Sharon is a great believer in second chances. Encouraged by friends and caregivers at school and in the girls' home where she has lived for the last four years, Sharon has stopped drinking and smoking, has a positive outlook on life and has moved from failing subjects to achieving four ones, two two's and 2 threes in CXC examinations.
In addition, the sixth former, for whom the state is no longer legally responsible, because she is 18 is now more determined than ever to reach her goal. But her dream may be crippled by the very cause of her teenage problems: no money. "I'm going to be a lawyer. It's a life-long dream. I have always wanted to do this -- to really go to university but I have no money," Sharon continued.
That is where the Ministry of Health's Children's Services Division is hoping to come in later this year.
As part of its 50th anniversary celebrations, Children's Services is hoping to establish an initiative to help former wards of the state, like Sharon, reach goals.
Under the proposed initiative, a committee of interested persons will be set up to source funds, which will be later pooled to help finance the education, provide equipment for small businesses and other activities being undertaken by former state wards, where possible.
In addition, the committee will source counselling for students and provide guarantors for those getting student loans. The hope, though, is eventually to develop a foundation.
"What has been happening over the years is that they get to this point sometimes and need further assistance which we cannot legally ask the Accounts department to pay for, so as case workers we have had to be seeking help for them here, there and everywhere," explained Mrs. Yvonne Hood, Deputy Director of Children's Services.
Each year, there are about 10 or 20 former wards who need such help so the Ministry is trying to develop a formalised, systematic way of getting help for them, she said. "It has become a little embarrassing, a little demoralising for some of them to come and say, 'Miss I really want to do so and so but I don't have the money' and their parents don't have it. If they know the parents and foster parents, while they are good to them, you find that their financial resources are limited."
(Name changed)
