By Glenda Anderson, Staff ReporterSHE IS RELUCTANT to have her picture taken but she certainly has no problems being quoted in the media as she wages a one-woman campaign to improve the care given to children who are wards of the state.
It has now become a mission of a higher level for this woman whose initial plan to adopt sons from her homeland has failed.
Just who is she?
Kay Osborne, a 55-year-old Jamaican woman, was appointed legal guardian for a six-and-a half-year-old boy from a privately run children's home in June of last year.
But after taking him home to the United States, she found that the child showed signs of being "heavily sexualised". He was later diagnosed with Axis 1 Post Traumatic Shock Syndrome by doctors overseas and it was revealed too that he had been sexually abused by care-givers in at two local institutions.
Ms. Osborne, a professional strategic planner employed to Abbott Laboratories, a pharmaceutical company in the United States, is now demanding a full scale investigation into the operations of childcare institutions islandwide.
"My research was in trying to understand the long-term effects on my own child, but I found too that most often these children are at risk for specific behaviours later. I came to realise too that those behaviours are among the social problems with which Jamaica is struggling. What if they started at this level, what if they could have been avoided or resolved from this level?"
RAMPANT SITUATION
Hinting at what she says could be a rampant situation of sexual abuse in local institutions, Ms. Osborne says, "In two days, I have been able to collect 23 cases."
She wants sustained investigations into the many allegations of sexual and other abuses rife in the system, and a structured programme of help for the juveniles.
"In terms of the legal issue, there is the question of to what extent were care-givers derelict in the execution of their public duties and so cause harm to this child and I will be engaging the services of an attorney for guidance on this," she said. "I want the church and the Government to pay for residential treatment overseas for Michael, because that is what he needs, as the reports have confirmed."
So far she has made contact with all the official agencies and units and is currently compiling detailed accounts from several victims and consultants, in the campaign to spark public interest and support.
Copies of her research and proposals are to be handed to members of a special review committee for children's homes and places of safety, convened by Prime Minister P. J. Patterson. There are also copies for the Prime Minister and Minister of Health.
NO ULTERIOR MOTIVE
Ms. Osborne says she has no ulterior motive, and dismisses suggestions of "an axe to grind" as "absurd".
"It would be unconscionable for me not to pursue the issue! The kids are being abused, they are children. I have been having such a hard time getting through, can you imagine a child within the system trying to get help?"
She claims to have no experience in social work or child-care, nor is she on a mission to embarrass the Health Ministry or local care-giving organisations.
Her small apartment has tidy columns and piles of paper work everywhere, while reams of research material are arranged in order on her bedroom floor.
But she says the detailed nature of her research and methodical recording of the situation has a two-fold reason.
"From I started the process of adopting, I stared documenting because I wanted to be able to present the information to him as soon as he became of age, and two it's what I have always done due to the nature of my job. I work with a pharmaceutical company so I have learnt that details are very important," she said.
Abbott Labs is principally engaged in the discovery, development, manufacture and sale of a broad line of health care products and services, including pharmaceutical and nutritional and hospital and laboratory products.
The company has also undertaken research work itself on topics such as sexual abuse, adolescent health and has been involved in investigations in the United States looking at sexual abuse of seniors in retirement homes.
In response to queries about the measures she has employed to keep Michael safe in light of her demands on the institutions, Ms. Osborne says that upon recognising Michael's situation, she had had her dog removed from her own home, and later made physical changes to her home to accommodate his condition.
A rough estimate of the cost of specialised care for the child was in the region of J$4.6M each year.
TWIST OF FATE
As to her reasons for wanting to adopt, she describes a twist of fate.
Ms. Osborne had left Jamaica in 1980 for the United States, where she settled into work and family life.
Two and a half years ago she was getting over a divorce, but the experience of having raised her husband's 18-month-old twins had left its mark.
"I had been a career woman throughout my childbearing years, had no children within my own marriage but later stayed home full-time for six years to care for my husband's twins. I realised through that experience that I loved being a mommy and was good at it. So after the divorce I decided to adopt."
The plan was really to adopt two little girls, and where else but Jamaica.
"Originally I wanted girls, preferably from say months old to about three years old, but then I heard that girls were harder to come by while boys had a hard time getting placed. So I thought this would have been my way of giving back. I would adopt a young boy now and maybe another little one later."
REFORM MISSION
But today she is no longer interested in adopting Michael, and has asked to be allowed to continue a "care-giver relationship" with him instead of one in which she would be legally liable.
"The process has been too painful for me and I wouldn't want to put myself through that again. It seems that I have been given a bigger purpose out of it, to reform the system, to stop the abuse."
There are no immediate plans to take legal action against the Health Ministry or institutions of care in Jamaica.
Name changed to protect
privacy.
