The remarkable account of the Gleaner Editors' Forum with children from inner-city Kingston communities would break a heart of stone.

One child broke down completely in recalling the murder of his grandfather. Another, an 11-year-old, recounted how a 10-year-old boy was killed in her community, just before his birthday.

Yet another told how "at times, the (gun) men come in my home from the front and the back, hiding from the police."

Deep traumas of violence are the hard lot of these, our young fellow citizens.

The children bemoan the absence of positive role models in their communities. They ask wistfully for their fathers and call on them to play a more direct role in their lives, irrespective of their economic circumstances.

It is not money these children are seeking from their absent fathers; it is love and affection, encouragement and care.

The children do not give in to self-pity. On the contrary, they have preserved their self-esteem and determination to achieve.

"In my vocabulary, there is no word as can't. I choose to rise to the occasion and do what I want to do in life," Brittany said. She would not be thwarted, no matter what.

Nearly all the children had clear-cut ambitions. They want to become doctors, lawyers, journalists and meteorologists. They have all the hopes of all Jamaican children, regardless of the social position of their parents.

This is a remarkable testimony to the strength of the human spirit in general, and to the sheer grit of the Jamaican character, in particular.

Whatever deficiencies these children endure in their material and family circumstances, they are models of positive values and attitudes.

They are an example to us all and prove yet again that self-confidence can conquer all, if adequate support is provided.

And therein lies the rub. These children, their teachers and their single parents, are trying very hard to overcome the odds, which are stacked against them.

But they should not be left to wage this battle on their own. They need all the help they can get and it is up to both the State and civil society groups to provide this assistance.

The needs of these inner-city youth provide an opportunity to develop a new partnership between state and voluntary efforts in our inner cities.

Large-scale mentoring and tutoring programmes, which draw on the knowledge of older, more privileged students and adults, could be a major area for collaboration.

A consolidated fund to provide financial assistance for both subsistence and educational purposes could be another. A programme for the identification of fathers, in order to encourage them to establish relationships with their children, could be a third.

Others will have even better ideas of what can be done to give these children the chance in life which they deserve. They are doing their part, against great odds. It is up to us to do ours.