After decades as a successful businesswoman in Old Harbour, St Catherine, Lorna Golding, wife of Prime Minister Bruce Golding, has embarked on a new career. She recently enrolled at a local university where she is pursuing studies in Child Development. This is a perfect fit with her role as the wife of the prime minister and founder/chairperson of the Jamaica Early Childhood Development Foundation (JECDF), that she launched in 2008.

Golding reiterated in a telephone interview with Flair last week, her belief that children need to be stimulated in positive ways at a very early age. But she stressed that good parenting practises must go hand in hand with this.

The JECDF is a non-profit organisation designed to assist in the Government's transformation of the education programme. The project takes an integrated approach to health, education and the provision of early stimulation for parents and children. The focus will be on nurseries and basic schools. It is also intended to foster the growth and development of young children, especially those in the zero-to-three age group.

New grandmother

Though minimising the gravity of the task she has undertaken, Golding who is a new grandmother, told Flair that the new knowledge, "... will help me to manage my grandson and keep me abreast of the new methods that psychologists recommend in raising today's children." She said that children today are much more advanced in their thought process than in her childhood days and it was very important to be on the ball with them.

She is grateful for the support she is getting from her husband and family who offer words of encouragement when they see her rising early in the mornings or staying up late at night to beat her books. But she is positive and upbeat about the topics she is covering. Like all other students, she is coping well with her course work and attending classes regularly as she works towards her degree. She is also achieving a balance between her official duties and family responsibilities.

As one of the increasing number of women who have either switched careers or taken on new challenges later on in life, Golding, who is from a family of high achievers, also sees this as an opportunity for self-actualisation. "It will help me to better implement the goals of the foundation. Plus, I am not doing anything new - many women and mothers are doing this every day," she quipped.

barbara.ellington@gleanerjm.com Additional source: Gleaner archives