Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter
Young residents of Maxfield Park Children Village in St. Andrew enjoy their annual Christmas lunch last week. - Norman Grindley/ Deputy Chief Photographer
"PRESENTS, JUICE, cake, ice cream, dinner, chicken, rice and uhm, talking," make up the Christmas wish list of shy six-year-old Peter. And he will be lucky enough to get them.
'Lucky', in that, he is a resident of Kingston's Maxfield Park Children's Home and will be spending Christmas with a volunteer family, thanks to a campaigning effort started several years ago he does not remember how many by Public Defender Howard Hamilton, encouraging families to share their Christmas with wards of the state from one of Jamaica's over 50 children's homes.
Mr. Hamilton himself still takes in two children each Christmas from the privately-run Maxfield Park, Jamaica's largest and oldest home. It is currently home to 132 boys and girls aged 0-18 years old, but with a capacity of 180 explained its Superintendent, Roxiline Morrison-Spence. Twenty-two of these children were taken home by families last Christmas, although some of these went home to their own families and relatives.
The Sunday Gleaner spoke to one mother whose family took home a nine-year-old girl from another institution last Christ-mas, pairing the child with her own 11-year-old daughter. "She was with us for two weeks and we took her shopping on Christmas Eve and she was so happy ... Everything was extra special," she said. With a full house already this Christmas, another placement will not be possible but she maintained, 'I would definitely do it again."
Her advice to prospective families: "It depends on their personality and how they are able to manage the situation of the child.
"It makes me feel at home," explained one 13-year-old Maxfield Park girl who spent Christmas with a family last year and will be with them again. With them, she visited the beach, Port Antonio and mineral baths among other places.
"There is currently a "rush of interest" from families looking to take home a child, Ms. Morrison-Spence said. Most inquiries, she said, are usually last minute, part of the Christmas rush, but the application process can be completed within three days. To participate, families must have their homes visited and approved by an officer from the Child Development Agency (CDA). The next step is to visit the home itself, talk with staff and be introduced to the child.
Taking in a child from the home on a placement can be a valuable experience for the child, Ms. Morrison-Spence told The Sunday Gleaner. "It means establishing a relationship with the children that allows some level of bonding and after that they can go into care, sometimes experimental and sometimes in the long-term and sometimes they might go into care but mostly, this is just families doing something to help a child."
