Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter

Perched on a hillside on Fletcher's Avenue in Linstead, St. Catherine, is the home of True United Sisters, a charitable organisation which is providing hope for teen mothers, single mothers and at-risk children of single mothers.

The organisation, which was started two years ago by community and women's advocate, Karen Sudu, has been quietly providing assistance to these women through its programme of remedial education, counselling, skills training, health, and education-assistance programmes.

The organisation came about through a dream which Ms. Sudu had since she was a child: To establish an organisation which would seek to address some of the needs of single mothers, primarily in education, skills training and income generation.

But Ms. Sudu says her drive to establish the organisation was influenced particularly by her mother's own hardship in ensuring that her four children got a good education.

"In order to ensure that we had a good education, she used to buy the big paper bags that milk powder used to come in and make the smaller ones and sell them in the market," she reflects. "As children, we used to stay up at nights to help her to make those bags to sell in order for us to go to school."

The money, along with her father's financial support, helped to educate her and her siblings.

Childhood dream

"When I saw what my mother had to do just to ensure that I go to school, I said when I grow up, I want to help just one person to get an education," she says. "I see the need where there are a number of single mothers and when I talk to them, they can't get a job because they didn't get a good education or they don't have a skill."

But it was more than 20 years later that her dream became a reality when, through a small group of single mothers in Bog Walk, Linstead, and surrounding communities, that the organisation emerged.

"We started out by having meetings with the mothers, but they did not have the means, so I decided that I would have to work it out so that I did not have to depend on them," she recalls. "So, I turned it around, out of a group and into an organisation that provides service for them."

Out of her own pocket and donations from others, she was able to rent an office, which, during the day, provides remedial classes and skills training to these women.

Through its remedial-education programme, True United Sisters takes participants from a non-reading level to CXC level. The organisation also works closely with the Jamaican Foundation for Lifelong Learning, formerly JAMAL.

The organisation also provides skills training in handicraft, where the women are taught to make place mats, pencil holders, napkin holders and to do embroidery.

Ms. Sudu was able to get 78-year-old Irene Clarke to train the women in handicraft.

"I am just interested to help people because some of these boys and girls can find a way out without doing wrong things, and I realise that most of them here are so interested," says Ms. Clarke. "And this has given me so much encouragement to help them."

The organisation also helps these women through its health and educational-assistance programme, which provides financial assistance towards lunch money, textbooks, school and examination fees, as well as finances health care for their children.

Access to help

Janice Russell, a divorcée and mother of three, was able to access this help from the organisation. She was assisted to do level one in early-childhood education. Ms Russell wants to be a primary-school teacher.

She had to flee from an abusive marriage and was forced to depend on her parents to support her children. But her hope was renewed when she was introduced to the organisation by a flyer.

" I saw the flyer in Linstead and I called and was told to come here. I started with the group since February of this year. I was qualified for assistance in July and I did the summer courses and was accepted by an institution in Spanish Town," she tells The Sunday Gleaner.

Thirty-year-old Janice Mendes is another single mother of two who is also being assisted by the organisation. Ms. Mendes is very grateful to the organisation.

"I learn a lot of things; to do math and English and I am learning a skill - embroidery, handicraft and crocheting," she says proudly.

Ms. Mendes dropped out of school when she got pregnant at 17, just before getting the chance to sit the Caribbean Examinations Council exams her dream is to become an artiste, Ms. Mendes is prepared to learn a skill in the meantime before she 'buss'.

"I do original songs. I record one and have a demo, but I don't have any original tracks, so I am working on it. But you can't just depend on that alone. So, I am learning a skill. I like what I am doing and hope one day to do business in craft work," she says.

Ms. Mendes believes that persons who get pregnant at an early age can still continue with their education.

"There is hope out there. You can continue with your education by learning a skill through organisations such as True United Sisters. Just seek information," she recommends.

Ms. Sudu says the organisation is currently helping 12 women and two young men. Her dream is to include computer classes and a homework centre for the schoolchildren of these mothers.

"I am really relying on assistance and donations. I am hoping that someone - companies or individuals - will see what I am trying to do and assist where possible," she says.

dionne.rose@gleanerjm.com